Why it may not be a great idea to take PARCC this year:
41% of students who took the pilot reported it was hard to type their answers.
46% of students reported technology problems when taking the math test
teachers reported that 72% of students needed more time than the test recommended (suggesting a gross misjudgment of the time requirement)
72% of schools need more devices to administer the PARCC, so paper and pencil tests an option (but they cost 9 dollars more per test)
(source: Massachusetts DESE, except info in parentheses)
Also:
Paper/pencil test cost estimates(not including technology and maintenance! Billions of our tax money will take care of that.) increased from costing $3-$4 more than computer test to $9 per test more.
Essays written by students who took the pilot will be used to train an automated essay scoring (AES) tool. No humans will be needed to read your child's writing.
MCAS data is owned by the state, but ownership of PARCC data is unclear. (Who will have access to your child's test scores?)
Now is the time to stand up for what little remains of local control before we give away the rest of our children's futures.
Jim Horn at Schools Matter writes that with Tennessee's withdrawal from PARCC, there are now 15 states left in the consortium.
Unless something changes soon, PARCCis going to go the way of inBloom.
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