How did the PARCC go for your child today?
Mar 2, 2015 at 9:06am Edited
Yeah, when you don't test your test before you administer it, there are lots and lots of bumps. I love how, after paying 180 million for the test, they deliver a defective product. In the private sector, they'd be fired.
Just so you know, Pearson is the private sector company that makes the PARCC test and the interface for administration of the test is as awful as anything encountered. How it looks and feels was decided by Pearson who did make a lot of money on it. These bumps are due in part to the awful design of the administrative part of the test. Dreadful.
I thought that this was the test of the test - my understanding is that this year doesn't count
It's not the test of the test. It's the full roll-out. And it will count for 10% of teacher evaluations. With a higher percentage in the next couple of years.
The fact that people have concerns that you don't share does not translate to "hand-wringing."
meandtheboys said:
The fact that people have concerns that you don't share does not translate to "hand-wringing."
It's not that I don't have the same concerns...it's that some people seem concerned over everything. Hence the term "hand wringing".
Complete fustercluck in Florida, too, today. These standardized tests are just bad, bad practice all around. Unless you're a Pearson shareholder, of course. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/education/fl-school-testing-problems-20150302-story.html
Mar 2, 2015 at 12:27pm Edited
mammabear said:
So much hand-wringing...yowza!
It's as if there have never been standardized tests before.
Let your kids take the tests. They'll be OK. And please stay calm about it yourselves - how much of the stress the kids may be feeling is due to the hyper-ventilating of the adults?
If Obamacare has been given so much slack on getting the technology right on a rollout that actually mattered, give the PARCC some space on this rollout that has no consequences this year, and probably won't next year if the roloout does not go well enough.
About 1,000 students in Livingston have opted out.
http://7online.com/education/thousands-of-students-in-nj-opt-out-of-controversial-paarc-tests/540697/
http://7online.com/education/thousands-of-students-in-nj-opt-out-of-controversial-paarc-tests/540697/
I'm certainly considering it for my son. This,is not about hand wringing. How freaking rude.
To answer the OP's question-- both found it rather easy and no big deal. Though my 8th grader thought the delays in getting it off the ground were a bit much.
Heard some kids wrote essay answers about why they hated the test since they knew it meant nothing this year. Lovely.
Heard some kids wrote essay answers about why they hated the test since they knew it meant nothing this year. Lovely.
What other standardized tests do the students take each year? Or is this the only one?
Here's a great investigative piece from Politico about Pearson and its no-bid, high-profit contracts with cities and states all over the country. The concerns are hardly "hand wringing" -- a private company is making enormous profits by selling poorly-designed products on which school district funding, teacher evaluations, and student success will eventually depend:
"In this atmosphere of crisis, Pearson promises solutions. It sells the latest and greatest, and it’s no fly-by-night startup; it calls itself the world’s leading learning company. Public officials have seized it as a lifeline. 'Pearson has been the most creative and the most aggressive at [taking over] all those things we used to take as part of the public sector’s responsibility,' said Michael Apple, a professor of education policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison."
Not just K-12 either -- Pearson is taking tremendous advantage of the increasing commercialization of higher ed, too. It's not that Pearson is evil or deliberately out to do harm -- they're just taking advantage of the giant sucking sound of public capital fleeing from what should have been a public good.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/pearson-education-115026.html#ixzz3THLjp3vC
"In this atmosphere of crisis, Pearson promises solutions. It sells the latest and greatest, and it’s no fly-by-night startup; it calls itself the world’s leading learning company. Public officials have seized it as a lifeline. 'Pearson has been the most creative and the most aggressive at [taking over] all those things we used to take as part of the public sector’s responsibility,' said Michael Apple, a professor of education policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison."
Not just K-12 either -- Pearson is taking tremendous advantage of the increasing commercialization of higher ed, too. It's not that Pearson is evil or deliberately out to do harm -- they're just taking advantage of the giant sucking sound of public capital fleeing from what should have been a public good.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/pearson-education-115026.html#ixzz3THLjp3vC
I teach in the MSW program at Rutgers and Pearson creates the eCollege site for classes with an online component and produces the text and support material in a foundation class I teach. They are very present in higher ed
My kid's group was told to log into the wrong day's test. When the teacher and admin realized the mistake, they had the kids sit for 2 hours doing nothing. They will take today's test next week. Two and half hours of wasted education time. Unacceptable.
meandtheboys said:
It's not the test of the test. It's the full roll-out. And it will count for 10% of teacher evaluations. With a higher percentage in the next couple of years.
ctrzaska said:
Heard some kids wrote essay answers about why they hated the test since they knew it meant nothing this year. Lovely.
I guess I don't understand. It counts for the teachers but not the students?
SOMSD has decided it won't count for students this year. But it will starting next year.
ctrzaska said:
To answer the OP's question-- both found it rather easy and no big deal. Though my 8th grader thought the delays in getting it off the ground were a bit much.
That was my 8th grader's take.
meandtheboys said:
SOMSD has decided it won't count for students this year. But it will starting next year.
Count for what?
"Using the scores on standardized tests to shape the life chances of kids, determine the pay and reputations of teachers, gauge the quality of school administrators, establish the worth of neighborhood schools, or as an excuse to hand public schools over to private, profit-taking corporations is, at the very least, irresponsible. If, as it appears, it’s a sneaky scheme to privatize America’s public schools without broad public dialogue, it’s unethical."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/01/the-important-things-standardized-tests-dont-measure/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/01/the-important-things-standardized-tests-dont-measure/
Next year, the market size of K-12 education is projected to be $788.7 billion. And currently, much of that money is spent in the public sector. "It's really the last honeypot for Wall Street," says Donald Cohen, the executive director of In the Public Interest, a think tank that tracks the privatization of roads, prisons, schools and other parts of the economy.
http://m.thenation.com/article/181762-venture-capitalists-are-poised-disrupt-everything-about-education-market
http://m.thenation.com/article/181762-venture-capitalists-are-poised-disrupt-everything-about-education-market
My 8th grader said his test took about three hours, mostly waiting.
My 5th grader said it was super easy and everyone finished early.
Btw, PowerSchool is a Pearson product as well.
@afa: I'm unsure what all else there is...there used to be NJAsk and this relaxes it, I believe. There are many years of this test.
In HS there is the HSPA (jr year?), which must be passed for graduation.
My 5th grader said it was super easy and everyone finished early.
Btw, PowerSchool is a Pearson product as well.
@afa: I'm unsure what all else there is...there used to be NJAsk and this relaxes it, I believe. There are many years of this test.
In HS there is the HSPA (jr year?), which must be passed for graduation.
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A problem occurred when some of the kids logged into tomorrow's test. With that, the whole class was told to take tomorrow's test today. My child had to leave at 12:30 today for a doctors appointment so she was told not to take tomorrow's test today with her class because they wouldn't be done by then. But now she can't take tomorrow's test tomorrow. She'll have to do it during the make up week. This leaves her sitting it out tomorrow.
Fun times!!