No walk in the PARCC

By Daniel Wall
Posted 1/26/16

By DANIEL WALL

The United States Department of Education (DOE) is worried about Rhode Island’s testing participation rates. In December, Rhode Island and 11 other states were notified that they …

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No walk in the PARCC

Posted

By DANIEL WALL

The United States Department of Education (DOE) is worried about Rhode Island’s testing participation rates. In December, Rhode Island and 11 other states were notified that they had failed to meet the required participation rates. Federal law requires that states test students in grades three through eight annually, and once in high school. The law also mandates that at least 95 percent of students are tested.

Last year, the controversial PARCC test was implemented as Rhode Island’s state assessment. Before the test was even administered, many parents expressed concerns regarding the quality and validity of the assessment, as well as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that it is based upon. With the increased focus on standardized testing, parents have expressed concern that instructional time is now utilized for test preparation. In the area of privacy, parents were alarmed to learn that their children’s personal information may be being shared with large corporations. Nationwide, because of concerns such as these, many parents decided to have their children “opt-out” of taking the assessment. In fact, over a half-million students, nationwide, did not take their state assessments.

In addition to serving notice to the state, the Department of Education’s letter also contains a list of “actions” that could be used to improve testing participation rates. The DOE clearly states that it has the authority to withhold all, or a portion, of the state’s Title I funding. There are also other potential consequences. These include downgrading performance rankings, counting students who don’t take the test as non-proficient, and encouraging states to withhold state educational funding to schools and districts with low test participation rates.

As an educator, I am aware that standardized tests can be valuable tools that provide useful feedback to parents, teachers and administrators. Furthermore, I realize that the 95 percent participation benchmark was originally put in place with the best of intentions; to ensure that the needs of all students were addressed. I also realize that the DOE has the legal authority to enforce this law. However, I believe that some of the suggestions contained in the DOE’s letter could prove to have a costly impact, both financially and academically.

The No Child Left Behind era has come to a close. There now seems to be genuine commitment on both sides of the political aisle to curtail the federal government’s role in educational policy. Unfortunately, this letter from the DOE doesn’t seem to be reflective of that trend. The cause of improving our schools will not be served by mandates and ultimatums, but instead by a thoughtful reset of our course. We need to engage parents, educators and public stakeholders. We need to thoroughly analyze our standards and our tests in an effort to produce a better educational system.

Daniel Wall represents Ward 6 on the Cranston School Committee.

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