PARCC monitoring student's social media, wants schools to "punish" them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This entire thread is infuriating. I'm a teacher... a dang good one with a portfolio of accolades from parents, students, and administers. I've applied for and received numerous grants to attend professional development opportunities worldwide. Yes, worldwide... so I know more about foreign education programs than most. I can successfully teach advanced classes as well as remedial classes. I mention this only to establish my credentials...

I am extremely against CCSC and PARCC. I was supportive at first, until I witnessed the insulting and demeaning curricula and related tests. So now I'm actively fighting these reforms, along with other teachers I respect. Frankly, I value my integrity more than my paycheck. I'll likely be fired one day for speaking out, so hopefully some of the parents who are unaware of the overtesting (18% of class time so far this year at my school... and the PARCC window is far from over) will listen to the dissenters so the sacrifice is worth it.

Oh... and no Tea Party member here. Solid Democrat. I would like to come back and read replies, but not if they are rude. I am interested in a reasoned and respectful discussion related to CCSS and PARCC.

Can you post a standard you find "demeaning"?

Also, can you tell what school district you are in that has required 18% of your instructional time to be devoted to testing, and what you are including in that figure?

Not OP. Every test requires mandatory training and reading about procedure. Especially computer based tests:hours watching client/ user procedure on clips as well as three diffevent manuals proctors. So that's for 2 PARCC administrations this year. Three MAP administrations.Some schools also doing MSA and HSA administrations in addition. Yes, March to May is just testing. But all our formative assessments lead up to that..all year. We have to produce data showing growth in selected areas similar to test objectives in informal testing. I think his or her assumption of 18 percent is LOW.

I'm sure that there are some mandatory processes around proctoring and test security but beyond that I think a lot of what students go through varies greatly school by school - I just asked my 7th grader how much time they've spent on PARCC and he said that other than a brief discussion of test format and process in one study hall session, he and his classmates have spent zero time on anything PARCC related.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This entire thread is infuriating. I'm a teacher... a dang good one with a portfolio of accolades from parents, students, and administers. I've applied for and received numerous grants to attend professional development opportunities worldwide. Yes, worldwide... so I know more about foreign education programs than most. I can successfully teach advanced classes as well as remedial classes. I mention this only to establish my credentials...

I am extremely against CCSC and PARCC. I was supportive at first, until I witnessed the insulting and demeaning curricula and related tests. So now I'm actively fighting these reforms, along with other teachers I respect. Frankly, I value my integrity more than my paycheck. I'll likely be fired one day for speaking out, so hopefully some of the parents who are unaware of the overtesting (18% of class time so far this year at my school... and the PARCC window is far from over) will listen to the dissenters so the sacrifice is worth it.

Oh... and no Tea Party member here. Solid Democrat. I would like to come back and read replies, but not if they are rude. I am interested in a reasoned and respectful discussion related to CCSS and PARCC.

Can you post a standard you find "demeaning"?

Also, can you tell what school district you are in that has required 18% of your instructional time to be devoted to testing, and what you are including in that figure?

Not OP. Every test requires mandatory training and reading about procedure. Especially computer based tests:hours watching client/ user procedure on clips as well as three diffevent manuals proctors. So that's for 2 PARCC administrations this year. Three MAP administrations.Some schools also doing MSA and HSA administrations in addition. Yes, March to May is just testing. But all our formative assessments lead up to that..all year. We have to produce data showing growth in selected areas similar to test objectives in informal testing. I think his or her assumption of 18 percent is LOW.

I'm a public school teacher, although I'm not in a tested grade this year, so I haven't been trained on PARCC. I've been both a test administrator and a proctor. I've never read a testing manual (other than reading aloud the "proctor instructions" that say "now open your test books" etc . . . ) or watched a video about testing during instructional time. Those things are always done either on a teacher's own time, or during planning time.

As far as MAP and formative assessments, MCPS has had those for years. You can hardly blame PARCC or CCSS for those.

No students are taking MSA's this year that I know of. Some students are taking HSA's, that is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Not OP. Every test requires mandatory training and reading about procedure. Especially computer based tests:hours watching client/ user procedure on clips as well as three diffevent manuals proctors. So that's for 2 PARCC administrations this year. Three MAP administrations.Some schools also doing MSA and HSA administrations in addition. Yes, March to May is just testing. But all our formative assessments lead up to that..all year. We have to produce data showing growth in selected areas similar to test objectives in informal testing. I think his or her assumption of 18 percent is LOW.

PP said 18% of class time. So out of every 5 days a student was in class, the student would spend one day doing tests. I also wonder which school system that is. My kids' experience in MCPS has been very different. In fact, there has been much less prepping for the PARCC tests than there used to be for the MSA tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

On the other hand, there is nothing new about the Common Core State Standards.

I never said that. I said that the two standards you posted will be taught whether they are standards or not. There is much about Common Core that is sorry.

For example?

[Anonymous]

I am also giving the PARCC test this year and have only had one brief "training." It took 30 mins tops. I just read the instructions and follow the directions. Schools in lower SES communities like mine spend A LOT of time on test prep because we tend to get low test scores (MSA in the past). So while a PP noted that not much time is spent on test prep, that os most likely because your school has had high test scores in the past. Most of that has to do with the demographics of the students who attend that school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

9:11 You are spot on. I am also a teacher and have seen this path several times before (I am 55 years old feeling very sad about what continues to happen).

The poster at 8:41 who said the anti CC people are a bunch of extreme right wingers is way off base. None of the reasons he gives are reasons that many people are against the testing. They are against it for a plain and simple reason: it just doesn't help anyone at all.

But the tests aren't because of the Common Core standards. If the Common Core standards went away tomorrow, there would still be the tests. That's because the tests are required by the No Child Left Behind Act. It does not make sense to oppose the Common Core standards because of the testing requirements in NCLB.

+1. I feel like the standards and the testing gets conflated and confused. I am all for the standards. But, the Pearson curriculum designed to teach them sucks and the testing is a nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

9:11 You are spot on. I am also a teacher and have seen this path several times before (I am 55 years old feeling very sad about what continues to happen).

The poster at 8:41 who said the anti CC people are a bunch of extreme right wingers is way off base. None of the reasons he gives are reasons that many people are against the testing. They are against it for a plain and simple reason: it just doesn't help anyone at all.

But the tests aren't because of the Common Core standards. If the Common Core standards went away tomorrow, there would still be the tests. That's because the tests are required by the No Child Left Behind Act. It does not make sense to oppose the Common Core standards because of the testing requirements in NCLB.

+1. I feel like the standards and the testing gets conflated and confused. I am all for the standards. But, the Pearson curriculum designed to teach them sucks and the testing is a nightmare.

Pearson curriculum? Pearson isn't the only company developing textbooks and materials around Common Core. Not by a longshot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

9:11 You are spot on. I am also a teacher and have seen this path several times before (I am 55 years old feeling very sad about what continues to happen).

The poster at 8:41 who said the anti CC people are a bunch of extreme right wingers is way off base. None of the reasons he gives are reasons that many people are against the testing. They are against it for a plain and simple reason: it just doesn't help anyone at all.

But the tests aren't because of the Common Core standards. If the Common Core standards went away tomorrow, there would still be the tests. That's because the tests are required by the No Child Left Behind Act. It does not make sense to oppose the Common Core standards because of the testing requirements in NCLB.

+1. I feel like the standards and the testing gets conflated and confused. I am all for the standards. But, the Pearson curriculum designed to teach them sucks and the testing is a nightmare.

Pearson curriculum? Pearson isn't the only company developing textbooks and materials around Common Core. Not by a longshot.

[Anonymous]

Pearson curriculum? Pearson isn't the only company developing textbooks and materials around Common Core. Not by a longshot.

Interesting, though, that PARCC got LOTS of federal grants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Pearson curriculum? Pearson isn't the only company developing textbooks and materials around Common Core. Not by a longshot.

Interesting, though, that PARCC got LOTS of federal grants.

What's interesting about it?

PARCC and Smarter Balanced both received federal funding: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/awards.html

[Anonymous]

What's interesting about it?

A PP was commenting that schools could use other companies. Feds are pushing PARCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What's interesting about it?

A PP was commenting that schools could use other companies. Feds are pushing PARCC.

They are? How do you know this? And if they are, then evidently they're not pushing very effectively, given that

1. they also give money to Smarter Balanced, and
2. lots of states are using something other than PARCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What's interesting about it?

A PP was commenting that schools could use other companies. Feds are pushing PARCC.

A PP commented that schools could use other companies' curricula. PARCC is a test, not a curricula.

[Anonymous]

They are? How do you know this?

The feds aren't pushing PARCC and Smarter Balanced. They are only giving them money for fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

They are? How do you know this?

The feds aren't pushing PARCC and Smarter Balanced. They are only giving them money for fun.

You don't think it undermines the Pearson Is Behind It All! conspiracy theory that the federal government gave money to Smarter Balanced as well as to Pearson? Do you think that they gave money to Smarter Balanced for fun?