PARCC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line for DC parents with children in public school is that, because the District doesn't allow families to opt out of PARRC, testing time blocks work as childcare. It's that simple. As has been explained, if you're going to opt out, you need to bring time, planning and risk aversion to the exercise. A thick skin won't hurt either, as you stand accused of selfishness etc. for pushing back against PARCC testing by voting with your feet.

I have a sibling who opts out in Oregon, one of the 3 states allowing parents to reject state standardized tests without penalty (with California and Colorado). When she opts out, her children are provided with supervision at school.

As long as no childcare is provided for families who opt out in DC, PARCC quality, and how results are interpreted, is immaterial politically. There's no anti-testing lobby for OSSE to contend with, no threat that test results will be rendered meaningless by low family participation. The arrangement is convenient for the for profit-organizations producing the tests, and the DC vendors and bureaucrats who profit from their business professionally and financially. But, arguably, it's also fundamentally coercive to citizens who object to PARCC testing for whatever reasons.

. The outcome of the recent gubernatorial race in VA seems to herald a less militant approach to state mandated standardize testing from both parties. I bet we’ll see more flexibility from the Feds on meeting ESSA testing requirements post pandemic. It’s already creeping in. No idea what DC’s reaction will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not if you’ve opted out in advance. Admins and teachers don’t want adversarial parents filing complaints. They leave the tiny number of families who opt out alone. Moreover, my kid has a watch phone. She knows to call me if any make-up testing is pushed on her.

You are some freaked out parent. Does your child call you when other things are being pushed on her, like vegetables in the cafeteria?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get it. It seems like so many folks on here
opine often on how people should avoid most schools in most parts of the city EOTP due to low PAARC scores. But then are also entitled enough to not subject their own kids to citywide standardized tests. Something doesn’t add up.

It doesn't add up because many parents here are so messed up.

[Anonymous]

There should be room in a democratic society for contrarians, eccentrics and non conformists. Leave them opt out families alone. DCPS has to change with the times. Pushing around UMC parents is, er, more challenging than ordering low SES families around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get it. It seems like so many folks on here
opine often on how people should avoid most schools in most parts of the city EOTP due to low PAARC scores. But then are also entitled enough to not subject their own kids to citywide standardized tests. Something doesn’t add up.

It doesn't add up because many parents here are so messed up.

. Helping explain, what? Why DCPS isn’t one of the nation’s highest performing urban school systems?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If opting your children out of PARCC is to do them a "disservice," rich kids are in real trouble.

The inconvenient truth is that their parents permanently opt them out by sending them to...independent schools!

Have you not read the thread? The comment you are responding to said .. either opt out of public schools that are focused on preparing kids for achievement tests or allow them to take the tests they spend so much time preparing for. The disservice is not getting to actually do the thing you've been practicing doing. (So, no inconvenient truth. Just poor reading comprehension on your part.)

Please give us a good reason UMC DC children should take PARCC tests they've "spent so much time prepping for?" So they can take pride in high scores that are virtually guaranteed by their parents' income? So that they're eligible for GT programs if they test advanced? To help teachers support their needs/learning gaps (although PARCC results don't come out until the summer or fall, by which time many of test takers will have moved onto a different school).

I teach my children that 3rd-8th grade corporate standardized tests are irrelevant to their lives. I tell that they're much better off working hard to excel at school work and extra-curriculars that will almost certainly matter down the road than to ace an irrelevant test. We focus on building toward a variety of other achievements that matter to us all.

Cool. Doesn't fix the reading comprehension issues. You said if parents really want to opt out they should go private, which I'd already said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the options other than PARCC? If it’s not a great test and there are better out there that’s one thing. But it seems like there is some hostility to measuring competencies and that is not something you can avoid forever in many fields, whether your are a plumber or a surgeon.

Federal law requires testing. The poster who mentioned a "short" tests for fall and spring that can be used to assess individual students strengths and weaknesses with associated tailoring has a nice idea. But, where's this test?

For better or worse, testing is more about accountability than identifying where students need support. That is the role of formative assessment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I fail to understand why so many DC ed stakeholders are fine with the bad news PARCC, particularly after it’s been on hiatus for a couple years now and wasn’t missed.

It's fine to worry this isn't the best assessment but DC has to assess our students like every other state. There aren't going to be Covid waivers this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the options other than PARCC? If it’s not a great test and there are better out there that’s one thing. But it seems like there is some hostility to measuring competencies and that is not something you can avoid forever in many fields, whether your are a plumber or a surgeon.

Federal law requires testing. The poster who mentioned a "short" tests for fall and spring that can be used to assess individual students strengths and weaknesses with associated tailoring has a nice idea. But, where's this test?

For better or worse, testing is more about accountability than identifying where students need support. That is the role of formative assessment.

Are you referring to the poster who suggested using MAP? https://www.nwea.org/map-growth/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get it. It seems like so many folks on here
opine often on how people should avoid most schools in most parts of the city EOTP due to low PAARC scores. But then are also entitled enough to not subject their own kids to citywide standardized tests. Something doesn’t add up.

It doesn't add up because many parents here are so messed up.

By here you mean DCUM? I have never met anyone IRL like the crazy parents In DCUM. The are self selected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the options other than PARCC? If it’s not a great test and there are better out there that’s one thing. But it seems like there is some hostility to measuring competencies and that is not something you can avoid forever in many fields, whether your are a plumber or a surgeon.

Federal law requires testing. The poster who mentioned a "short" tests for fall and spring that can be used to assess individual students strengths and weaknesses with associated tailoring has a nice idea. But, where's this test?

For better or worse, testing is more about accountability than identifying where students need support. That is the role of formative assessment.

. Most of the standardized tests the states use are either created at the state level, or are PARCC or Smarter Balanced and state hybrid tests. Confess does not require that long, poorly crafted corporate standardized tests are used to comply with Every Student Succeeds Act mandates. The fact is that some of the state tests can be taken in just 3 or 4 hours. DC had gone with a poor quality test that takes 10 hours die ES and 12 hours for MS. The city council shouldn’t have let OSSE off the hook for its abysmal testing choices 8 years ago and shouldn’t continue to do so.

[Anonymous]

That's right. Congress doesn't require OSSE to give 10-12 hr standardized tests to kids.

There are states giving 2-hour standardized tests with no interference from the Feds.

We're really unlikely to get a better test if nobody complains.

[Anonymous]

Where are you guys getting the idea that these tests take each kid 10-12 hours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you guys getting the idea that these tests take each kid 10-12 hours?

Because I’m a DCPS teacher, and they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They could also finally acknowledge that the parcc math test is really a reading test with math mixed in. They treat reading and math scores separately but they are intertwined, especially with how wordy the PARCC is.

Schools can opt into read aloud on the Math PARCC for every student, gen and SPED, for that very reason. The computer reads every question.