Saturday, April 16, 2016

PARCC









"RHODE ISLANDERS SHOULD BE CONCERNED THAT THE SHIFT FROM PUBLIC TO CORPORATE CONTROL IGNORES UNIQUE LOCAL CONTEXTS AND EDUCATOR EXPERTISE, LEADS TO INCREASED SURVEILLANCE AND EXTERNAL CONTROLS, AND POSITIONS STUDENTS AND TEACHERS AS MERE DATA" 


"...POSITIVE SCHOOL CLIMATE IS ASSOCIATED WITH AND/OR PREDICTIVE OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, SCHOOL SUCCESS, EFFECTIVE VIOLENCE PREVENTION, STUDENTS' HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT, AND TEACHER RETENTION" 




Rhode Island Teachers Respond to PARCC: A White Paper

By: Janet D. Johnson and Brittany A. Richer



This week’s reading was a study about Rhode Island’s K-12 public school assessment known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which is an exam by Pearson.  “These high quality K–12 assessments in Mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy give teachers, schools, students, and parents better information whether students are on track in their learning and for success after high school, and tools to help teachers customize learning to meet student needs.”  I’m really glad that this study was brought into our classroom because I did not go to RI public schools nor am I teacher, which led me to many questions in regards to PARCC. I had not heard of this exam until we began discussing it in class and had only limited knowledge of the NECAP (The New England Common Assessment Program), which led me to do a little research into PARCC. I listed a few of them below and a video at the top of this blog. Johnson and Richer’s study examined the negative impact that PARCC is having on our Rhode Island schools, teacher, and students.

I was aware of the negative impact that these standardized test have on students but the numbers the Johnson and Richer’s study provided were mind blowing. First, I want to talk some of the numbers that this study provided.
  • 83% of the studies teachers believe the climate of their school worsened (p 15 )
  •  80% of the teachers believed the text experience was negatively impacting their students (p 5)
  • “91% of urban teachers disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that “My students feel the did well on the PARCC test” (p 7)
  • “95% of them [teachers] disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that their ELLs understood most of the questions on the test” (p 8)


I feel as if it’s important to discuss the “elephant in the room”, which in my mind is the fact that this study showed that “teachers in suburban schools reported having the most positive experience” (6).  This exam doesn’t only prove those in the culture of power are scoring better and having a more positive experience with the test but it is emotionally and academically breaking down Rhode Islands oppressed students. Thinking back to Finn, he gave us four classes; executive elite, affluent professional, middle, and working class. The reason I started thinking about Finn when I read Johnson and Richer’s study was because of the time that is being taken out of the curriculum in order to prepare for the PARCC.  Sure, I don’t believe a standardized test should take over and class’s curriculum but it is important to think of how these students are being educated. The oppressed students, the ELL, students with disabilities on IEP’s, their curriculum should be based on educating these students and preparing them for a future, not on passing a standardized test. 

“Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to” (Johnson, 23).  I was unaware that PARCC was offered in both English as well as Spanish, however as stated in Johnson and Richer’s study, “there are 84 additional languages being spoken in Rhode Island public schools”(8).  How can we empower students when they feel that there is no way the can do well on the standardized test that their teacher is required to spend the majority of his/her curriculum pushing on their students?  The language along on this exam is giving those of power and advantage on this exam. 


“They must understand the relationship between society, culture, language, and schooling. They must understand the relationships between progressive methods, liberating education, and powerful literacy n the one hand and traditional methods, domesticating education, and functional literacy on the other” (Finn)
I just can’t see where standardized tests or more specifically, the PARCC exam proves students have received what Finn believes (quote above) as a decent education.



"No PARCC,we want freedom; all these standardized tests, we don't need them." 









2 comments:

  1. YUP, right there with you. I had never heard of PARCC nor NECAP before this class so I also had to do my research. It's great that you compared it to Finn's classes and how each class is truly affected. The corresponding results and statistics from the study really bring that home.

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  2. Bethany, i liked the youtube on 10 facts for PARCC. The narrator really hit the nail on the head when she said only two people really want the test the governor and the head of education. I wonder if Pearson paid for our world leading leader to take a trip to someplace to be one of only 12 states now who think that this test is worth all of the effort and waste of instruction time. 15 hours of time, not to mention time wasted for the teachers to become familiar with the taking of the test, collecting and passing out of materials and so on. I'm definitely "Cooler" to the idea, not "Warmer".

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