PARCC is a bad joke

EBennett said:

The subject tests used to be called SAT II.  They've been around since the early 1980s.

Or was it the ACTs?? We had SAT and ACT tests. I think I recall the ACTs being more 'subject' oriented in the late 80s.

Heard this on the news the other day:

BAYONNE, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — Parents are upset over a mix-up with a standardized test as kids from one New Jersey school were given the wrong exam.

CBS2’s Meg Baker reported 34 eighth-graders at Nicholas Oresko School in Bayonne were supposed to take the Algebra 1 Assessment, but were administered the Grade 8 Mathematics test.
It’s just the latest problem for the controversial standardized test from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

“The principal came in and he told us we had taken the wrong test,” Allie said, adding the principal called it “a minor glitch.”

Allie said some of the students got emotional about what happened.
“Some people were crying because we had taken a whole test and we had to basically throw away all the answers,” she said.

One parent said about her daughter, “She was sad about that and she almost cried.”

In a statement, the Bayonne School District said, “As soon as it was brought to the attention of the testing administrator, the test was closed. The New Jersey Department of Education Office of Assessment was immediately notified of the irregularity, and the principal contacted the parents.”
However, one student said that’s not what happened.

“The letter said we stopped the test. No, we took the test,” the student said.

Parents said a student alerted a teacher, saying she thought something was wrong because the test was too easy. Teachers are not permitted to look at or help with the computerized tests.

“The material was really easy and we had learned it before, so we were confused why it was on this test,” Allie said.

Several parents said they feared going on camera in fear of retaliation from the school district.
Bayonne Police officers told CBS2’s Meg Baker they were called to the school because she was reporting the story.

The students will retake the correct test next Wednesday.

The Education Department said this was a local administration issue and 900,000 students take the test in nearly 2,600 schools around the state.

A scientist, in the course of investigating something, will propose a hypothesis and will the construct tests to validate the hypothesis.  When scientists apply for grants, they have a detailed explanation of their research proposal, how they will conduct the research and why the research will be of use.

Surely we should expect the same of government officials pushing the PARCC at great cost as if it is going to provide us with meaningful new information that they will actually act upon.  Is the PARCC going to tell us what we don't already know - that a student's zip code is the greatest predictor of academic success.

Most of the time, my view of the endless debate about education is the same as my view of dieting in America.  With dieting, the answer is always the same - eat proper portions of proper foods  and exercise about an hour a day.  But Americans continue to invest a lot of money in pursuit of some other answer.  And so it is with education.  It seems to me that the best thing we could do is have school district that are balanced across socio-economic-demographic factors.  Of course, this isn't going to happy for many reasons, so I guess we will continue to pretend that teachers or the curriculum are the problem.

tjohn said:

It seems to me that the best thing we could do is have school district that are balanced across socio-economic-demographic factors.  Of course, this isn't going to happy for many reasons, so I guess we will continue to pretend that teachers or the curriculum are the problem.

Many scientists are struggling with the problem of housing segregation by SES, which then causes school segregation by SES. Even our own district's attempts to integrate by SES have not succeeded: Seth Boyden is on the verge of dropping to the next-lower rung of Title I Low-SES schools.

The converse of your last sentence appears to be that you believe students' learning will be the same regardless of what the curriculum is, or who the teacher is. 

It is too bad that the writer of that article wasn't educated enough to let us know who Allie is.  I'd like to fix that somehow moving forward.  

sprout said:

tjohn said:

It seems to me that the best thing we could do is have school district that are balanced across socio-economic-demographic factors.  Of course, this isn't going to happy for many reasons, so I guess we will continue to pretend that teachers or the curriculum are the problem.

Many scientists are struggling with the problem of housing segregation by SES, which then causes school segregation by SES. Even our own district's attempts to integrate by SES have not succeeded: Seth Boyden is on the verge of dropping to the next-lower rung of Title I Low-SES schools.

The converse of your last sentence appears to be that you believe students' learning will be the same regardless of what the curriculum is, or who the teacher is. 

We could integrate the elementary schools in MSO given the money and political will.

The converse of my last sentence isn't really the intent.  My point is that teachers and curriculum will not overcome other factors.  My point is that education problems start and end off of school grounds.

tjohn said:
We could integrate the elementary schools in MSO given the money and political will.

Of course. It's just not as easy as it should be... even for an area that espouses a dedication to such things.

The converse of my last sentence isn't really the intent.  My point is that teachers and curriculum will not overcome other factors.  My point is that education problems start and end off of school grounds.

Many teachers believe they can help students overcome some other factors. Research supports this. 

One use of assessment is to get a baseline of outcomes... that baseline is then used as a gauge to look for clues of what helps students beat those odds.