PARCC Testing Begins In Bristol-Warren

If you’ve been following the news, no doubt you’ve seen that there are quite a few differing opinions regarding PARCC, the statewide academic testing that has begun this week in Rhode Island. There’s protest this week organized by students in Pawtucket regarding a teacher who was suspended, and other news stories here, here, here and here, regarding how the testing has been received so far in our state.

While the Rhode Island Department of Education (“RIDE”) expects all eligible students to take the PARCC exam (which has replaced the NECAP test as of this school year) there is no state law requiring students to take it. The RIDE has indicated that each individual school department can decide for themselves whether to make the exam required. In fact, RIDE Commissioner Gist indicated that she doesn’t see a difference between the state wide PARCC exam and the teacher developed tests kids take in class. All of this is outlined in a memo from RIDE to the state’s school districts.

School Committees around the state are determining if they want our kids to be required to take the test. Tiverton has decided to not make the state wide test mandatory. Barrington has determined it should be mandatory. At issue before us as a community is whether we want to compel our students to take this exam, as currently offered by the district. To that end, our School Committee is in the process of determining its policy regarding whether students should be compelled to take the statewide test.

An argument that has been made for making PARCC compulsory is that schools will lose federal funding if 95% of students in any given school do not participate in the statewide assessment. The link to the federal policy is here, and, in my opinion, a fairly good description of why this isn’t really a risk for Rhode Island at all, is here.

Further, the federal law requires that tests “be administered not less than once during grades 3 through 5; grades 6 through 9; and grades 10 through 12”. The PARCC exam as currently administered by our district exceeds that standard substantially.

My understanding is that PARCC was designed as a formative test – checking on students to see how the school, grade, and students were doing and how they measure up compared to one another, across the state and across the other states that use the PARCC exam. As explained in the PARCC forum earlier this month, hosted by our Superintendent and members of our School Committee, since the exam isn’t taken until the end of the year (March and May) the results of the test aren’t really actionable until the next school year. So, for example, this year’s eighth graders’ results will help inform how teachers and administrators adjust techniques and such to next year’s incoming eighth grade class.

Personally, I do see the value of this kind of information and being able to compare our students, schools and state across many other schools and states. And in theory, it’s really cool to think that we will soon be able to know how an eighth grader in our district compares to one in New Mexico. I just don’t agree that requiring students to complete the test for however many hours it takes, twice a year, every school year from 3rd through 12th grade is worth the time and the money and the effort, when there are many other ways to see how kids are doing in school, and better ways for them to spend their time.

As a community, it is up to us to be informed and state our opinion on matters like these. For many of us, it’s hard to get to School Committee meetings to continuously be monitoring what’s going on. Indeed, that’s the very reason why we elect these officials – for them to understand the issues and use their best judgement in shaping policy and act on our behalf. If you care about this issue before the School Committee – specifically, should the PARCC Assessment be required of all students every year? – contact the members of the School Committee and let them know what you think and ask them to tell you their opinion. If you can, attend the meetings.

Also, contact your state representative and let them know what you think about the pending statewide legislation. Feel free to comment below and we can have a conversation here, too!