Marina Ford is a high-achieving sophomore attending Pinelands Regional High School in Tuckerton, New Jersey. All of her classes are either honors or Advanced Placement. Her favorite subject is English, and she loves to read and write. She ordinarily scores above average on standardized tests — and always does especially well on the English section. The 16-year-old says that she loves English because it “gives me the freedom to explain myself and my point of view on a subject.” Her dream: “becoming a lawyer and going to a college I am proud of.” Marina recently took the PARCC — the new Common Core test being given in a number of states this spring — and she was so upset with the experience that she decided to write about it in a comment on the website of Save Our Schools New Jersey. I am republishing this with permission.
[Principal to parents: ‘We don’t need to get used to this. We need to stop it.’]
PARCC is a reference to the Common Core test created by the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, one of two multi-state consortia given $360 million in federal funds to design new standardized tests that align with the Common Core State Standards and are supposed to be used to hold students, schools and teachers “accountable.” PARCC testing is under way in New Jersey and several other states. Controversy over the new Common Core exams has sparked a growing opt-out movement among parents, thousands of whom are refusing to allow their children to take the tests in states across the country. The PARCC consortium once had 26 member states, but after numerous defections there are now fewer than a dozen states committed to using the PARCC exam this year. The Arkansas House on Friday approved a measure to drop the PARCC.
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Dear Readers,
ReplyDeleteAs evidenced by this respected posting, there is no need for parents to submit their children to PARCC testing despite what is being said - frankly, local (Wicomico and Worcester) school administrators are telling parents that they have no choice with regard to this excessive testing - not true. Further, they point to legal statutes in COMAR that are both incorrect and misleading - as parents, you have the right of refusal.
more information at www.unitedoptout.org
Regards,
Paladin
Do not use the words opt out. Tell them you are "refusing" the test. If your child is old enough they can refuse. MSDE is only tasked with offering and administering the tests. There is NO FEDERAL or STATE LAW that mandates a student to take a test. There are even provisions in the PARCC rules for refusals and how schools are supposed to handle.
ReplyDeleteWicomico County High School Parents: Ask your child what is going on in his/her high school with PARRC Testing this week.
ReplyDeleteAlso beware: Further upcoming high-stakes tests include, but are not limited to: Writing and math assessments, HSA Assessments, SRI Reading Tests, Final Exams, and more.
She is smarter than Obama,Clinton,or Fredrickson. Her parents should be proud!
ReplyDeleteThe saddest part about this is that this student's writing is so poor. Run-on sentences, lack of subject/verb agreement, and fragments are some of the major grammatical and stylistic errors she makes. I have no doubt that she is taking AP courses, and I can even believe that she is doing well in them. How sad.
ReplyDeleteI am against Common Core.
ReplyDeleteI am against the PARCC.
This student's writing, however, actually makes the case FOR the exam. If she is ranked at the top of her school in English and math and yet writes poorly and, by her own admission, couldn't answer even one question on the Algebra 2 pre-test, then there needs to be an objective way to measure her against top students from other schools who might actually know how to write a well-reasoned essay and how to do Algebra 2.
ReplyDeleteSo if we unscramble the acronym we are left with C CRAP?
Makes sense now!
A group of like minded parents could plan an outing for their children to a place of cultural significance on the same day as the test. Spend some time with your kids and enjoy a day off school on their own fieldtrip.
ReplyDeleteJust another scam from professional educators whose experience was never with actual students, but with research. Just as with No Child Left Behind, which left all children behind, this is a racket.
ReplyDelete755, I read this girl and please point out the mistakes, as I have found her English to be just fine.
ReplyDeletePlease explain.
Classroom teachers do not support this test. A BOE employee who has not been in the classroom for several years my be drinking the kool-aid but teachers are against this
ReplyDelete