March 16th through April 6th have been the beginning weeks of PARCC testing at Colonia High School. With computer glitches and confusing schedule changes, CHS students had a rough couple of days.
The official PARCC website had kept live feed updates on March 25th and discussed that the PARCC test had mainly been a huge success with 40,000 to 55,000 students taking the test. New Jersey had also topped the charts, having the most students take the test. The live feeds had also vaguely brought up the fact that there were glitches, and said that they were expected. What the website didn’t mention though, was the negatives and nuisances that students had to face.
The one main issue that CHS had was scheduling. Classes were made shorter and longer, with some as long as two hours, and others as short as a half an hour. Because of this, teachers and students were behind on lesson plans, and other classes had students that had to sitting in the same seat for two hours. Student lunches were also changed, with lunch times alternating every other day, causing confusion and hungry stomachs.
The English portion of the test had many dislikes from students. There have been several complaints from CHS students saying that the passages on the test were very random and agonizing to read. Other complaints were that test-takers had too much time on the test, finishing in about 30 minutes or less on an hour and a half test. This wouldn’t be a problem if students and teachers were able to go back to classes and work after they have finished their testing, but no, test-takers have to lie their heads down on tables and do nothing, and talking was not permitted.
The week after the English portion of the PARCC, CHS started the mathematics segment of the PARCC, and students have discussed their dislikings on this part of the test as well. PARCC mathematics testers are complaining that typing their answers was more complicated and difficult, and that the questions in general were exhausting and demanding.
Despite these flaws here at CHS, PARCC has found from the 2014-15 tests that more than 90% of students had a sufficient amount of time to complete the test. The makers of PARCC have also planned to revise manual and training modules, expand practice tests to include paper-based tests and additional components, and many more revisions.
According to their website, PARCC is a test made by a group of states not a test company which makes one wonder are their too many cooks in the kitchen? With input from so many people, it is no wonder there were some issues with the test. It also makes you wonder what educational test creating background so these Governing Board Members have?
A recent update from nj.com tells that, “NJ lawmakers are already thinking about making a law that would gurnatee the right for a student to opt-out of the test.”
Here at CHS, students that did opt-out went into a separate room while waiting for the tests to be completed.
Nj.com also went on to say how five state residents are petitoning and requesting that, “districts be required to provide an alternate learning enviroment for students who opt out of testing and that students neither be penalized nor rewarded based on whether they participate in PARCC.”
