Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Education Reformers And Hubris

Valerie Strauss reports some members of the GOP in Florida want the state to pull out of the PARCC consortium:

Florida had joined the PARCC consortium but now, Senate President Don Gaetz and Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford, both Republicans, are urging Bennett to withdraw. The letter cites numerous problems with the PARCC, including cost and security as well as these points:

*PARCC assessments will take 20 days of testing plus extra time for students to “demonstrate knowledge and skills,” eating up more instructional time than does the current testing regime in the state, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

*PARCC exams will all be given on the computer, but no district in the state yet has the required amount.

*PARCC “does not have a plan for the timely return of assessment data” that is supposed to be used to provide teachers with information on their students, to determine whether a student can be promoted or put in remedial classes, and to evaluate teachers.

(It is worth noting that critics of the process by which the Core was developed and implemented have long warned about the development of these problems, but reformers went ahead anyway without thinking through all of the ramifications of their rushed actions.)
I think reformers went along with the PARCC testing plan because they figured once the train left the station, it couldn't be brought back. 

But they were wrong.

And as the general public becomes more aware of the problems inherent in the Common Core and the testing consortia plans, the reform train is slowing down.

We're not at the point yet where it's being brought back to the station, but the half-baked job reformers did on their supposed "state of the art" CC assessments may get us back there just yet.

By pushing through so many changes so fast because they had the political muscle to do so, reformers have sowed the seeds of destruction of both the Core and the testing consortia.

There are so many problems and resistance is increasing.

Perhaps we're lucky the reform movement is as arrogant as it is.

Remember what we learn about hubris from the Greeks.

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