opting out of parcc testing

my son is supposed to take his first parcc test this year. i have serious anxiety over this as he has an iep and struggles in school.  so, i am considering having him not take the tests. can someone who has had their child opt out tell me why?  can anyone tell me the cons if we choose to opt out?  thank you!

Tests are waste of time. Specific individual results from ones taken last spring still have not been released and general results were only released about a month ago. We opted out last year for similar reasons to yours.

thank you!  wondering if there were any negative repercussions for opting out?

I don't think the PARCC Tests counted for anything last year.  Not sure about this year.  

There is no individual repercussion and the state legislature just removed any threat of penalty to districts if too few participate.

First of all Bramzoinks is in another district.  Secondly , standardized tests- PaRCC or whatever is used is there to inform the district how effectively it is teaching the curriculum.  It is especially important to have this data for populations that may not be well served such as Special Ed, Low SES and Minorities.  The delay in results is due this year to the fact that it is s new test.  Next year's results should be available sooner.  It is not being used for student placement or in teacher evaluations this year and I believe next as well.  

Why be anxious?  It is not a judgement on your child.  

mod said:

First of all Bramzoinks is in another district.  Secondly , standardized tests- PaRCC or whatever is used is there to inform the district how effectively it is teaching the curriculum.  It is especially important to have this data for populations that may not be well served such as Special Ed, Low SES and Minorities.  The delay in results is due this year to the fact that it is s new test.  Next year's results should be available sooner.  It is not being used for student placement or in teacher evaluations this year and I believe next as well.  

Why be anxious?  It is not a judgement on your child.  

Excellent post.  

The PARC test says nothing about anything. It is a total fraud enriching only Pearson. Hey, I like most corporations. But Pearson is evil. Very evil. Very Very evil.

My son took them last year.  We refused to make a big deal out of it.  I have no idea yet how he did, and will not judge his progress based on the test, since of course we monitor his progress and issues full time.  If they help the school find areas where they need to improve, fine.  I think it is an issue that is blown out of proportion.

My son didn't take them.  We didn't make  a big deal out of it either.  He seems ok.

I wish I could use that excuse at work.  Don't worry boss, my report is several months late because this is a new report.  Next time will be better.

mod said:

The delay in results is due this year to the fact that it is s new test.  Next year's results should be available sooner. 

yahooyahoo said:

I wish I could use that excuse at work.  Don't worry boss, my report is several months late because this is a new report.  Next time will be better.

mod said:

The delay in results is due this year to the fact that it is s new test.  Next year's results should be available sooner. 

FWIW: It's not 'late'. It was scheduled to be a Fall release this year due to the time needed for the initial standard setting/scoring process. It is scheduled to be an earlier release in future years.

From the PARCC FAQ:

http://www.parcconline.org/about/faqs/313-faqs-scoring

How quickly will assessment data be returned to teachers?
PARCC’s goal is to have data from the performance-based assessment and end-of-year assessment returned shortly after the end of the school year. In Year 1, however, reports will not be available until fall, as standard setting will occur during summer 2015 after the results from the first tests have been analyzed.

It's a waste of everyone's time, and the more people who opt out, the sooner we'll see an end to this era of crazy testing. 

Not to mention the countless hours that were spend in the classroom "preparing" for the test. Time that could have been used much more productively. All told there was about a month worth of classroom time where no real learning went on.

mod said:

It is especially important to have this data for populations that may not be well served such as Special Ed, Low SES and Minorities.  The delay in results is due this year to the fact that it is s new test.  Next year's results should be available sooner.  It is not being used for student placement or in teacher evaluations this year and I believe next as well.  

Why be anxious?  It is not a judgement on your child.  

Agree with this.

My son, with an IEP, took the tests, no big deal.  We already know there is a huge achievement gap in our district between special ed students and general ed students (yes, even bigger than that other achievement gap).... anything to provide data and further inform how we are serving our children most in need (or not serving them) would be useful information to have.  

taaj - I would encourage you to have your child take the tests, and don't stress over the process or results.  I am a sincere believer that if parents don't over-stress about the tests, the students will have a much easier time with them.  If you don't allow the tests to cause you a lot of anxiety, then there isn't any great reason to sit them out, unless you are among the many who are idealogically opposed to them. 

(and that said, I do hope that the amount of time devoted in school to standardized testing decreases substantially, but we are kidding ourselves if we think all standardized tests will be going away anytime soon)

I believe bramzzoinks is in Millburn, and I find it interesting that Millburn spends a month on test-prep of some kind. 

yes and yes it did. 

Not sure what the big deal is about taking the PARCC... It's an assessment of each child's readiness academically for college and work.  Use it for what it is... An evaluation tool and guide for what to focus on.  It's not like kids in grade school and even middle school are burdened with so much academic work that this eats into their overall learning experience.  My kids in grade school were not prepped by their teachers in Millburn... After they took the tests they promotly forgot about it, but the tests will help us have a view on where they are stronger or weaker in academically.  No one made a big deal out of it at all - teachers, most parents, kids, ourselves as parents, etc.

If you're in high school and would prefer to better invest your time in schoolwork, APs, clubs, leadership posts, etc. and you already have a good sense for where you stand academically, then there's reason to skip it... And there's no repercussion.