Practicing for PARCC - WHY!?!?!

[Anonymous]

I think the questions and answers are very poorly written, but some of you may disagree:

https://parcc.pearson.com/practice-tests/english/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our 5th Grader had practice for the PARCC test as well. Seriously. Practice for the PARCC in 5th grade. I get it if the student is new to the system - take them aside and give them a chance to see the test format, but for kids who have already taken it for two years, why set aside yet more instructional time to PRACTICE?!

Wait! When you practise for this test, don't you also figure out what content knowledge you are missing? I think practising for any test is a great idea because this is how you know what you have learned and what you still need to work on.

My 9th grader is taking AP NSL this year. He has a great teacher who was testing them each week as he was teaching them each unit. Part of the homework assignment was also taking notes from the text. All kids were doing very well. Then just a few weeks ago, the teacher started to give them practice test and it turned out that most of the students did not remember the texts and documents that were assigned in the homework. Yes, most of the students have an "A" in the class, but if they want a 4 or a 5 in the test, they have to study for the test. I am actually very glad when students are made to study for tests. This extra iteration of learning allows them to master the content.

What does the AP test have to do with the PARCC test?

DP. Well, they're both standardized tests.

But other than that...

A test that measures the understanding of content is a good thing to have in schools. AP tests measures the student but what I like is that PARCC measures the school and how well they are teaching the school. If they are prepping for the exam - Great! And if students are getting extra work because they are lagging behind then that is the way achievement gap will be bridged. I do not see the downside, unless, the schools are not tryoing to fill the gaps in knowledge, or all other learning is stopped.

The ELA PARCC test doesn’t test content taught to students during that school year unlike most other tests like the AP test It tests skills using random content. It’s like apples and oranges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our 5th Grader had practice for the PARCC test as well. Seriously. Practice for the PARCC in 5th grade. I get it if the student is new to the system - take them aside and give them a chance to see the test format, but for kids who have already taken it for two years, why set aside yet more instructional time to PRACTICE?!

Wait! When you practise for this test, don't you also figure out what content knowledge you are missing? I think practising for any test is a great idea because this is how you know what you have learned and what you still need to work on.

My 9th grader is taking AP NSL this year. He has a great teacher who was testing them each week as he was teaching them each unit. Part of the homework assignment was also taking notes from the text. All kids were doing very well. Then just a few weeks ago, the teacher started to give them practice test and it turned out that most of the students did not remember the texts and documents that were assigned in the homework. Yes, most of the students have an "A" in the class, but if they want a 4 or a 5 in the test, they have to study for the test. I am actually very glad when students are made to study for tests. This extra iteration of learning allows them to master the content.

What does the AP test have to do with the PARCC test?

DP. Well, they're both standardized tests.

But other than that...

A test that measures the understanding of content is a good thing to have in schools. AP tests measures the student but what I like is that PARCC measures the school and how well they are teaching the school. If they are prepping for the exam - Great! And if students are getting extra work because they are lagging behind then that is the way achievement gap will be bridged. I do not see the downside, unless, the schools are not tryoing to fill the gaps in knowledge, or all other learning is stopped.

The ELA PARCC test doesn’t test content taught to students during that school year unlike most other tests like the AP test It tests skills using random content. It’s like apples and oranges.

So this is a test unfair to the school? In that case, protest to the person who can change this. The school does not have any say in this.

BTW...is their evidence of achievement gap in PARCC? Or even the high achieving groups flunking it?

[Anonymous]

The test is unfair to students who don’t have much background knowledge (poor kids). That is why high FARMS schools don’t perform well on them. It isn’t rocket science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The ELA PARCC test doesn’t test content taught to students during that school year unlike most other tests like the AP test It tests skills using random content. It’s like apples and oranges.

No, it doesn't.

Or, I guess, it depends on how you define "skills" and "content". It doesn't test you on when William Shakespeare was born, if that's what you mean by content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The ELA PARCC test doesn’t test content taught to students during that school year unlike most other tests like the AP test It tests skills using random content. It’s like apples and oranges.

No, it doesn't.

Or, I guess, it depends on how you define "skills" and "content". It doesn't test you on when William Shakespeare was born, if that's what you mean by content.

It tests reading comprehension skills that are overly taught in schools. Skills like compare/contrast, inference get, predicting, determining the author’s purpose, etc. These skills are supposed to translate to any content. The thing is that testing comprehension is highly dependent on domain specific knowledge. Where does most of this knowledge come from? Not much from school since every district follows its own curriculum and teaches its own content. That is why the PARCC test has to be a bunch of random reading passage Every district innMD has a different curriculum. Read “The Knowledge Deficit” for a thorough explanation of why reading scores don’t improve in our school system.

[Anonymous]

I told my kids not to stress out over this test. I don't think they're practicing for it, though (ES and MS).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New test is out there.....the children at our school have over a seven days of testing in Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program-formerly know as PARCC happening as we speak.

Opt out. Have the kids do an at-home CTY our Khan Academy course instead.

You can get a lot of learning done in seven days!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New test is out there.....the children at our school have over a seven days of testing in Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program-formerly know as PARCC happening as we speak.

Opt out. Have the kids do an at-home CTY our Khan Academy course instead.

You can get a lot of learning done in seven days!

The testing window for middle school is 4/23-6/4. That's a long time to keep your kids out of school.

[Anonymous]

The practice we did had more to do with the format of the test and the tools available to them (notepad, highlighter, answer eliminator etc), so that they would be comfortable with the format and layout of the test. The practice lesson took about 20 minutes total. Even 4th and 5th graders who have taken it previously benefit from the practice. -teacher

[Anonymous]

The way a fifth grader explained it to me was they were testing the system and not practicing the test. They were making sure all the computers could hook up to the test and the links were working. They were told it did not matter how they answered as the content was not important, but the technical process of making sure all was working well was the goal.

[Anonymous]

May the students take PARCC in HS also. Our ranking for best school suffer otherwise.