PARCC results: how will they be communicated to families?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, nice boosting, but I don't need every mom I know to know exactly what day my BASIS middle schooler kid is undergoing academic assessment.

I never understood this whole "booster" put down. It makes you seem small and insecure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, nice boosting, but I don't need every mom I know to know exactly what day my BASIS middle schooler kid is undergoing academic assessment.

Why does it matter if other moms know when assessments are occurring? Genuinely confused as to what the issue is.

Privacy is in the eye of the beholder.

She's posted the same insane stuff on other threads. I bet she sends her kid to school in a tin foil hat to protect them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:she just cut and pasted the whole email...just ignore the dates...

S/he can't do that. To do so would force her to read the actual substance and acknowledge it is a well constructed comm with useful info about why the test is being given and what the data used for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, nice boosting, but I don't need every mom I know to know exactly what day my BASIS middle schooler kid is undergoing academic assessment.

I never understood this whole "booster" put down. It makes you seem small and insecure.

Ugh. I had no problem with the nice boosting, but with the public sharing of grade-by-grade testing schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:she just cut and pasted the whole email...just ignore the dates...

S/he can't do that. To do so would force her to read the actual substance and acknowledge it is a well constructed comm with useful info about why the test is being given and what the data used for.

Well-constructed, or thoughtlessly pasted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, nice boosting, but I don't need every mom I know to know exactly what day my BASIS middle schooler kid is undergoing academic assessment.

Why does it matter if other moms know when assessments are occurring? Genuinely confused as to what the issue is.

Privacy is in the eye of the beholder.

She's posted the same insane stuff on other threads. I bet she sends her kid to school in a tin foil hat to protect them.

Do share a link or two, see whom you're confusing me with!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP was pointing out that not only does BASIS compress the PARCC into a couple of days (unlike every other school in DC) but it also does additional, shorter, and more effective standardized testing.

Other schools/DCPS should be looking at this model.

Everyone can and should have shorter and more efficient testing. Nothing will change with DCPS until parents make enough noise. You have a mayor in charge who knows nothing about education. The “chancellor” is her mouthpiece. The central office staff is full of Teach for America alum who taught for 2-3 years (with assistance) and are now the supposed experts in education. Based on what I’ve seen as an educator, I would never enroll my child in DCPS. Teachers aren’t perfect, but many of us are trying. We can only do so much with what we’re given.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, nice boosting, but I don't need every mom I know to know exactly what day my BASIS middle schooler kid is undergoing academic assessment.

I never understood this whole "booster" put down. It makes you seem small and insecure.

Ugh. I had no problem with the nice boosting, but with the public sharing of grade-by-grade testing schedule.

They posted the comm from the school. Those are school days where kids will be in class and the test is given in the building during regular class time. Help me to understand what information was shared that is so sacred? Serious question - I'll wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP was pointing out that not only does BASIS compress the PARCC into a couple of days (unlike every other school in DC) but it also does additional, shorter, and more effective standardized testing.

Other schools/DCPS should be looking at this model.

Everyone can and should have shorter and more efficient testing. Nothing will change with DCPS until parents make enough noise. You have a mayor in charge who knows nothing about education. The “chancellor” is her mouthpiece. The central office staff is full of Teach for America alum who taught for 2-3 years (with assistance) and are now the supposed experts in education. Based on what I’ve seen as an educator, I would never enroll my child in DCPS. Teachers aren’t perfect, but many of us are trying. We can only do so much with what we’re given.

It seems crazy to write off an entire school system because you don't like their testing strategy. And while I don't disagree with your assessments of the mayor/chancellor/central office, my experience with DCPS is that the teachers are often phenomenal and that if you find a school with a strong administration, they will successfully mitigate the negatives about district oversight and it can be a wonderful place to educate your child. I'd put many DCPS schools in the district well above most charters in this respect, where it can be extremely hit or miss. The level of teaching across the board in DCPS is very strong, and that's something I value highly.

Pretty much all school systems have flaws, and DCPS is not different. But it's odd to just reject it out of hand because of the testing policy and some of the dysfunction out of central office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP was pointing out that not only does BASIS compress the PARCC into a couple of days (unlike every other school in DC) but it also does additional, shorter, and more effective standardized testing.

Other schools/DCPS should be looking at this model.

Everyone can and should have shorter and more efficient testing. Nothing will change with DCPS until parents make enough noise. You have a mayor in charge who knows nothing about education. The “chancellor” is her mouthpiece. The central office staff is full of Teach for America alum who taught for 2-3 years (with assistance) and are now the supposed experts in education. Based on what I’ve seen as an educator, I would never enroll my child in DCPS. Teachers aren’t perfect, but many of us are trying. We can only do so much with what we’re given.

It seems crazy to write off an entire school system because you don't like their testing strategy. And while I don't disagree with your assessments of the mayor/chancellor/central office, my experience with DCPS is that the teachers are often phenomenal and that if you find a school with a strong administration, they will successfully mitigate the negatives about district oversight and it can be a wonderful place to educate your child. I'd put many DCPS schools in the district well above most charters in this respect, where it can be extremely hit or miss. The level of teaching across the board in DCPS is very strong, and that's something I value highly.

Pretty much all school systems have flaws, and DCPS is not different. But it's odd to just reject it out of hand because of the testing policy and some of the dysfunction out of central office.

You seem not to understand how the charters are set up. Each one is it's own LEA. By design there are varying approaches, and by extension, levels of success. Your suggestion that "many DCPS schools" are strong but charters are uneven is weird. DCPS is supposed to be one system, charters not.

To be clear, I don't disagree that charters and DCPS have varying degrees of success. I just take issue with the way you selectively allow for individual DCPS schools within the same system to have different outcomes but try and group "charters" together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, nice boosting, but I don't need every mom I know to know exactly what day my BASIS middle schooler kid is undergoing academic assessment.

I never understood this whole "booster" put down. It makes you seem small and insecure.

Ugh. I had no problem with the nice boosting, but with the public sharing of grade-by-grade testing schedule.

Why would that remotely matter? Who outside BASIS would care at all about which day particular BASIS-specific testing occurs? Do you really think the world revolves around you that much?

[Anonymous]

i used to assume central office was largely very young teach for america alums. but having read the profiles, that is not true. the central office lea curriculum are largely former principals etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the least surprising, most depressing news we could have gotten in the first week of school. I feel deeply frustrated by the fact that many of us vocally and proactively talked about this starting in the summer of 2020 and constantly sought solutions that would prevent this from happening, and were repeatedly told to be quiet and that we were being entitled or selfish. This was inevitable and it should have been obvious to all involved when it was happening. That it wasn't is almost more alarming than the fact it happened at all.

This will all be blamed on Covid but I honestly think a lot of people should lose their jobs over this. Especially when you look at the impacts on black and Hispanic kids, and at-risk kids. We're talking 10%+ drops in proficiency across all categories and grade levels.

I also think the more people dig into the high school numbers the worse the problem will get. People on DCUM don't get it because their kids mostly do not attend the HSs in DC vaccine the biggest issues. But it's not just that scores dropped for HS students. It's that significant numbers of kids are missing altogether -- just simply do not go to school anymore and haven't since March 2020. Meaning that not only does DC have a massive drop-out/truancy issue that has worsened during the pandemic, but that these abysmal scores actually represent the performance of the kids who are most present in the schools.

We failed the kids, folks. We, the adults, failed our kids. We better come together to fix it.

I don't disagree. And I am not against focusing on standardized tests. But I can't help but thing that the results of these scores is going to be and *even more panicked PARCC prep* than in normal years. Like, it will be PARCC prep from January on instead of after Spring Break. I dunno, I wish they would also focus on other things that could address the gap, like making sure that all kids get phonics instruction and a solid math curriculum.

Or maybe DC will just drop PARCC like every other state in the US already has.

And do you think the score would be different if they administered a different test? When will you finally get it? If it's not PARCC it'll be something else and the scores will still be the same and the rankings won't change.

Any other test would take fewer days to administer, meaning more time to actually teach. So there’s that.

If you think the problem is the extra 2 days to take PARCC then you must not have a kid in school. Between PJ days, movie days, equity days, days preceding school vacations and all manner of days that aren't fully utilized there's simply no rational argument that the extra days of PARC vs another test are materially related to performance.

Are you stating we should take all the fun out of elementary school and start instruction day 1? Because I’m sure doing those things will definitely raise the scores. 🙄

Me thinks you would not get a 4 or 5 on the PARCC ELA. I was replying to the person who suggested that the length of PARCC was somehow contributing to poor scores because the test was multiple days long. My point was that the extra 2 or 3 days is nothing in comparison to the wasted days throughout.

I am the person to whom you were responding, and your analysis is off. I was not saying that 2 more days to teach would measurably improve scores.

I just see any days spent testing beyond what is necessary as a waste of time. Every other state and all states pre-PARCC thinks shorter tests are enough. I’d rather the kids do something, anything, other than waste time on excess standardized tests.

I may be misunderstanding your reply, but it sounds like you present a false choice: either spend time focuses on the test of get bad results and worry about larger issue. BASIS does PARCC in like 2 days and moves on. Their scores are better than [insert name of your school here]. Maybe the point is that prepping only for PARCC instead of having a rigorous curriculum and standards is a better use of time than just working to get test results.

No matter what test is used, many schools are going to try to work the test as a way to mask over gaps. I don't know any way around that.

Oh wow Basis, what a great example! A non title 1 school with a less than 7% at risk student population, 4% students with disabilities and 1% ELL. Oh how hard it must be to teach students already at grade level, with significantly less trauma, and less need for differentiation in teaching.

Quadruple their at risk, disabilities, and ELL students then tell me how good Basis is. Some parents who aren’t teachers make me laugh because they really think these scores mean something for children whose native language is English, neurotypical,have a negligible ACE score, and are privileged (and I do not mean white).

And no, people are not against standardized testing to ‘cover up’ anything. It’s quite obvious what kinds of children do better. I am against the money being spent on this crap. Use this money to get more staff, and better training, especially for those who aren’t reaching their students. And for some parent trainings, some of these parents are having a difficult time and it makes their children more difficult to teach.

PP has some serious issues regarding BASIS. BASIS does not control what students come through its doors. Complaining that a school is a great example and has high scores sounds ironic and desperate in a city lacking quality MS and HS. When my in-boundary MS and HS reach BASIS proficiency levels I'll do a rethink. Remember jealousy is a curse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i used to assume central office was largely very young teach for america alums. but having read the profiles, that is not true. the central office lea curriculum are largely former principals etc.

Young, old, former principal or former TFA. I don't care. They should all be working at least one day a week in a school giving hands on help to kids, staff, and administration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i used to assume central office was largely very young teach for america alums. but having read the profiles, that is not true. the central office lea curriculum are largely former principals etc.

Young, old, former principal or former TFA. I don't care. They should all be working at least one day a week in a school giving hands on help to kids, staff, and administration.

Just to mess with the people who hate on BASIS, allow me to chime in and mention that all of the BASIS academic admins also teach at least one class to keep them in touch with the kids and classroom. Booth that!