PARCC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense. What are they going to do to you if you opt out? They may try to ding you for attendance, which won’t work if your child has a good attendance record. I send my kid to school on testing days, then come get her a few minutes before testing starts. I sign her out, take her somewhere for a couple hours, sign her back in and send her. back to class. Admins at the school ignore us and DCPS never follows up. I did this for my older child in 2018 and 2019 without difficulty. I’m going to repeat the exercise for the PARRC this year. Don’t expect DCPS to entertain your kid if you opt out and things work out.

Why?

I mean, I can see you taking your child out of a school that focused on preparing kids for achievement tests, if you don't feel that's the best education for them. But, your child is getting all the test prep and just no opportunity to learn the skill of testing?

If this is just some protest gesture, you might rethink it.

So it’s not going to matter this year bc there’s no benchmark, but a significant part of a teachers eval is how their students do on PARCC. For me, as an upper ES teacher, that means I’m scored on how much stamina a 9 year old has on a test that is administered for 6 straight days over 12 hours. Yes, please opt out of this torture exercise that somehow is said to determine my ability to teach

[Anonymous]

PARCC started with about 22 states implementing it, now only 3 states including DC are left.

Part of the reason many states dropped it is due to parent boycotts leading to unreliable data. There is power in numbers, and maybe that power could lead DC to developing an assessment better for our children.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone find online how much money DCPS pays for Parcc? It has to be insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense. What are they going to do to you if you opt out? They may try to ding you for attendance, which won’t work if your child has a good attendance record. I send my kid to school on testing days, then come get her a few minutes before testing starts. I sign her out, take her somewhere for a couple hours, sign her back in and send her. back to class. Admins at the school ignore us and DCPS never follows up. I did this for my older child in 2018 and 2019 without difficulty. I’m going to repeat the exercise for the PARRC this year. Don’t expect DCPS to entertain your kid if you opt out and things work out.

Why?

I mean, I can see you taking your child out of a school that focused on preparing kids for achievement tests, if you don't feel that's the best education for them. But, your child is getting all the test prep and just no opportunity to learn the skill of testing?

If this is just some protest gesture, you might rethink it.

So it’s not going to matter this year bc there’s no benchmark, but a significant part of a teachers eval is how their students do on PARCC. For me, as an upper ES teacher, that means I’m scored on how much stamina a 9 year old has on a test that is administered for 6 straight days over 12 hours. Yes, please opt out of this torture exercise that somehow is said to determine my ability to teach

I have a first grader so I’m new to all this. Are you saying PARCC is 6 days straight for two hours a day?

[Anonymous]

At our DCPS it's 5 straight days, 2 hours per day in the morning during a week in late April or early May for 3rd to 5th graders.

The kids are too tired to learn much by the afternoon on testing days--they watch movies--so it's essentially a week of school sacrificed to make Pearson Education CEO James Fallon and his shareholders a tiny bit wealthier.

Some of the ELA test involves typing, so if a kid can't type decently, it can be hard to score high on ELA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PARCC started with about 22 states implementing it, now only 3 states including DC are left.

Part of the reason many states dropped it is due to parent boycotts leading to unreliable data. There is power in numbers, and maybe that power could lead DC to developing an assessment better for our children.

In opting out several times, I've learned how to keep things simple. All I do before testing week is shoot a senior admin at our kids' DCPS a 3-line email stating the following:

1) My intention to opt out (don't ask for permission; you won't get it, DC didn't include a provision for opting-out under Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act, update to No Child Left Behind).
2) My intention to remove my kid from the building during testing time blocks, after having dropped them off at school to counted present when attendance is taken first thing in the morning.
3) My objection to PARCC. Be brief.

CC yourself on the email, to be sure that you have a record in case a social worker contacts you, or you get a court summons (extremely unlikely but not out of the question).

I used to contact OSSE to ask for permission to opt out. I also used to meet with admins at the school to talk through opt out issues. Don't bother, not worth the unpleasantness (arm-twisting, guilt trip, even mild threats of legal proceedings). Know that the only tool that OSSE and DCPS can use to punish yo is to go at your family for subpar attendance. They're very unlikely to bother, particularly during the pandemic, and even if they do, if your kid's attendance is good, they'll back off soon enouygh. Nobody from OSSE or DCPS has ever followed up with our family about opting out. Also know that unless more than 5% of the families in a particular school opt out--unheard of in DC--no teacher's IMPACT score could possibly be effected by your opting out. Also know that the Dept of Education has never gone at any public school in the country for failing to meet the 95% participation mark. Idle threats.

Tips for anybody prepared to go through the hassle:

*It's very rare for a DC public school to accommodate families who want to opt out IN the building. I've heard of Janney students being permitted to wait out testing time blocks in the school library.
*As a general rule, if you opt out in DC you either need to keep your kid home during testing week, or send them to school and remove them during testing time blocks (like you'd remove them for a medical appointment, with the front office calling up to the classroom teacher to send the kid down to the front office, where you're waiting for them).
*If you keep your kid out of school during testing week, be sure to shoot your school's registrar an email each morning before the first bell, claiming that your child is sick that day, or stating that the child will not attend school because you're opting out. CC yourself on these emails.
*If you go to the school to remove the kid during testing time blocks, take screen shots of your daily entries on the sign in/sign out sheets at the front office on testing days. Save the photos.
*Role play with your kid a little to prep them for other kids asking why they're not taking the test, perhaps objecting to how they're getting out of it ("Not fair! Your family is weird!". Teach your kid that the less said, the better.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

What a drag. I'd opt out if I had the time.

[Anonymous]

We can barely staff regular school I am not sure how we are supposed to staff proctoring PARCC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We can barely staff regular school I am not sure how we are supposed to staff proctoring PARCC.

Oh don't worry! Pearson has "graciously" made an allowance so that now teachers can proctor up to 25 (i believe don't quote me). Either way they cut the 15 student max for a single proctor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone find online how much money DCPS pays for Parcc? It has to be insane.

Supposedly, administering PARCC is cheaper than it was for the District to test via the DC-CAS (pre 2015). Apparently, it's also much harder for schools to cheat on the PARCC.

[Anonymous]

At the middle school level it’s 2 1/2 hours per day for 9 days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have my own reasons for objecting to PARCC testing, thanks, in what’s supposed to be a free country. I can’t stand corporate standardized testing for elementary school-age kids. Moreover, DC is the only jurisdiction in the country that has stuck with the pure PARCC, mainly because it’s a poorly constructed test designed to rake in the dough for Pearson Education (not even an American company). A decade back, 2 dozen states were onboard with the PARCC. I like to teach my kids to act on deeply-held beliefs. No interest in starting a movement. We are entitled to be left alone where for-profit testing of little kids is concerned.

Sure. I don't think anyone is arguing your entitlement. However, I am suggesting you are ultimately doing your kid a disservice. However, you are entitled to that also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was hoping that Covid would end the obsession with standardized testing. It doesn’t show what was learned rather it shows how well you test. It makes many kids develop test anxiety.

I'd like my kids to learn the skill of testing taking. I will provide context about how much to fret but having them not take tests is unlikely to help their anxiety when the day comes and they do indeed have to take tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have my own reasons for objecting to PARCC testing, thanks, in what’s supposed to be a free country. I can’t stand corporate standardized testing for elementary school-age kids. Moreover, DC is the only jurisdiction in the country that has stuck with the pure PARCC, mainly because it’s a poorly constructed test designed to rake in the dough for Pearson Education (not even an American company). A decade back, 2 dozen states were onboard with the PARCC. I like to teach my kids to act on deeply-held beliefs. No interest in starting a movement. We are entitled to be left alone where for-profit testing of little kids is concerned.

Sure. I don't think anyone is arguing your entitlement. However, I am suggesting you are ultimately doing your kid a disservice. However, you are entitled to that also.

. Not the poster you’re responding to but I’m not seeing the disservice. Have you taken a PARCC practice test for your kid’s grade? So many poorly worded questions and dry reading passeges. I wasn’t remotely impressed. If I were in a position to take my kids out of their PARCC testing room to do something more constructive than take this lousy test, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I was homeschooled and never took a standardized test before the PSAT. I was a National Merit semifinalist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was hoping that Covid would end the obsession with standardized testing. It doesn’t show what was learned rather it shows how well you test. It makes many kids develop test anxiety.

I'd like my kids to learn the skill of testing taking. I will provide context about how much to fret but having them not take tests is unlikely to help their anxiety when the day comes and they do indeed have to take tests.

While you’re at it you’d better get going on driving instruction, to reduce the risk that they will freak out as teenagers with a driving tester in the car.