Opting out of PARCC

[Anonymous]

DCPS needs to use a standardized test that is less time-consuming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OSSE requested a waiver for all spring 2021 assessments. I'm not sure there is a public announcement yet, a notice went out today through DCPS internal.

To the DOE? Is the DOE handing out waivers? I thought it was less than two weeks ago that it determined that all states needed to perform standardized testing.

Here's the latest US ED letter to chief state school officers:

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/stateletters/dcl-assessments-and-acct-022221.pdf

My read of this is that states can submit waivers for the accountability elements, but have to provide testing data. The Washington Informer is reporting that DC has cancelled for spring and will be requesting a waiver for testing (which is confusing given my read of the ED letter) (https://www.washingtoninformer.com/d-c-schools-cancel-upcoming-parcc-tests/)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS needs to use a standardized test that is less time-consuming.

See the earlier post about Indiana switching from 10-hour PARCC to a 4-hour state test two years ago, under heavy pressure from the opt-out movement in the state. By 2019, more than one quarter of IN families with students in public schools were refusing the PARCC. As long as almost all DC public school families accept the test, no pressure on OSSE to embrace a far less time-consuming alternative.

[Anonymous]

Letting DCPS or any other school district opt out of testing is letting them off of the hook.

We need to know where the students stand in regard to lost classroom time.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you. I was angry when a teacher recently encouraged her students to share a cancel parcc this year survey with parents. Parcc is a good opportunity to see how my own children are doing, and it is even more vital to the school system as a whole. Cancelling it is just another opportunity to sweep the disaster of this year under the carpet, cater yet again to the teacher's union, avoid accountability and lose an opportunity to develop a data-driven plan for addressing the learning gaps created by the pandemic. I am personally appalled by the way the school system and city is run, which is impossible to ignore given that the abysmal distance learning program that is being broadcast into my dining room - mostly a steady stream of movies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This year it's critical for your child to take the PARCC to show the widespread learning loss due to school closures. Teachers don't want your children to take the PARCC because then there's evidence that they didn't effectively do their jobs remotely. In fact, WTU advocated for no testing this year for this very reason.

Given the preponderance of WTU members coming on this forum to attempt to shame parents who want in person school, I wouldn't be surprised if this is another concerted WTU effort to try to get parents to opt out of PARCC.

Parents, please don't opt out of PARCC if it's offered. It's critical to have PARCC scores as evidence of learning loss so schools can get more funding to remedy this.

"WTU, WTU, and WTU. And did I mention WTU?" Surprised it took this poster more than six hours to get here, must've been working the MoCo board instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. One of my kids struggles with anxiety. He got 4s on last years parcc, but it wasn't worth his negative feelings toward it. The other tests fine, but I just don't believe in the premise of this test. I also think PARCC is not the best assessment out there. I think DC should ditch it like other states have. Why are they pushing to take this test when kids have already had a difficult year? What is the purpose of it other than financial perks to the companies?

So sorry to hear your child struggles with anxiety. Maybe put less pressure on him. I call BS to OP. There was no PARCC last year. You're a troll. Why are you stirring up so much hate?

[Anonymous]

In seventh grade, DC described to me a recurring panic memory taking a standardized math test and the math problem was so hard and complicated, DC couldn’t do it no matter what. PP who posted about child’s anxiety is *not* the one pressuring her DC. Rather, it’s an entire school system, with calendar and content built around standardized PARCC testing, ANET testing, i-Ready, whatever. I mean, it’s called hi-stakes, right? Which 8mplies pressure, pP did not invent that. For my part, I am so sorry that I sacrificed my child’s mental health to that industry, even fir a moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Letting DCPS or any other school district opt out of testing is letting them off of the hook.

We need to know where the students stand in regard to lost classroom time.

+1

[Anonymous]

Obvious that the pro testing people don’t get pArcc

[Anonymous]

If I want to administer a test to my own children to try a f gauge if they’ve learned what there were supposed to this year, what can I use? Or direct me to sites that will help me? Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you. I was angry when a teacher recently encouraged her students to share a cancel parcc this year survey with parents. Parcc is a good opportunity to see how my own children are doing, and it is even more vital to the school system as a whole. Cancelling it is just another opportunity to sweep the disaster of this year under the carpet, cater yet again to the teacher's union, avoid accountability and lose an opportunity to develop a data-driven plan for addressing the learning gaps created by the pandemic. I am personally appalled by the way the school system and city is run, which is impossible to ignore given that the abysmal distance learning program that is being broadcast into my dining room - mostly a steady stream of movies.

Yeah, teachers don’t want you to know how little learning and competency was achieved this year. They just want to pass kids to the next grade without being held accountable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you. I was angry when a teacher recently encouraged her students to share a cancel parcc this year survey with parents. Parcc is a good opportunity to see how my own children are doing, and it is even more vital to the school system as a whole. Cancelling it is just another opportunity to sweep the disaster of this year under the carpet, cater yet again to the teacher's union, avoid accountability and lose an opportunity to develop a data-driven plan for addressing the learning gaps created by the pandemic. I am personally appalled by the way the school system and city is run, which is impossible to ignore given that the abysmal distance learning program that is being broadcast into my dining room - mostly a steady stream of movies.

Yeah, teachers don’t want you to know how little learning and competency was achieved this year. They just want to pass kids to the next grade without being held accountable.

This exactly. It's the reason WTU advocated to eliminate testing this year.

[Anonymous]

It is important to conduct the PARCC this year. We need an apples-to-apples comparison to the previous PARCC results to inform us on the impact of DL. Once you switch standardized tests, it's effectively impossible to meaningfully compare the results to the old test. If we think there are other standardized tests that are superior to the PARCC, we can switch to another test next year.

We have had the largest disruption to education in over a 100 years. As a consequence, standardized testing has never been more important. We need to know the impact of this disruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is important to conduct the PARCC this year. We need an apples-to-apples comparison to the previous PARCC results to inform us on the impact of DL. Once you switch standardized tests, it's effectively impossible to meaningfully compare the results to the old test. If we think there are other standardized tests that are superior to the PARCC, we can switch to another test next year.

We have had the largest disruption to education in over a 100 years. As a consequence, standardized testing has never been more important. We need to know the impact of this disruption.

As a person who is pretty familiar with PARCC, this assertion is wrong. There will not be an apples to apples comparison. Grade 3 would be new to the test this year, as will be 4th grade. So what previous data will those scores be compared to? Nothing. So both scores would be a baseline. Grade 5 has data from when they tested in grade 3. So there is data there but then the problem lies in administering the test.

It is a secure test with strict guidelines on how to administer it. People have said that students would have to come back to school to take the test in person. But DCPS said that we could administer it remotely. How can we ensure students aren’t cheating? It’s easy to text your friends to work out a problem together. Because of that unknown factor, the data isn’t reliable.

And - it takes a long time. In regular times, it is 4 math sections and 3-4 ELA sections. Each section is 60 to 90 minutes long.

I agree there needs to be data, but PARCC is not the right tool to gather it.