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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
 Where have YOU been? It's all over the NY news. NY and Kentucky took the early PARCC tests. Why do you think they are ready to run the head of education out of the state?

http://www.parcconline.org/parcc-statement-release-new-york-state-assessment-results

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/nyregion/under-new-standards-students-see-sharp-decline-in-test-scores.html

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No, Kentucky did not take the early PARCC tests. Kentucky designed their own Common Core tests.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/state_edwatch/2013/09/common-core_tests_in_kentucky_year_two_whats_the_trend.html[/quote]

No, Pearson wrote the tests for New York and Kentucky: They are considered "pilots"
(Do you really thing that the states took the time and money to write the tests? They are part of the 'consortium' involved with the two big testing companies."

http://dianeravitch.net/2013/10/23/a-test-writer-comments-on-new-yorks-common-core-tests/
A Test Writer Comments on New York’s Common Core Tests
By dianerav 
This comment was posted yesterday:

I am a former, part time item writer for a private testing company; I wrote for many different state standards under NCLB. I must say that poorly constructed, confusing, or developmentally inappropriate items undermine the validity of standardized scores and subsequent use in teacher evaluation. When standardized tests are properly constructed, such items which might make it to a field test will almost certainly be vetted during what is typically a two year process. M[b]any items on the Pearson math and ELA administered last April here in NY [/b]were written, in my opinion, in an intentionally confusing style using obtuse or arcane vocabulary. The ELA test in particular included confusing item stems and distractors that were not clearly wrong. There were far too many items that turned subjective opinions (most likely; best; author’s intent; etc.) into a “one right, three wrong” format. Many teachers were unsure of the correct answers on a number of vague and fuzzy items.
The math test included many items that were ridiculously convoluted. Although there may be other compelling arguments against VAM teacher evaluations, corrupt test writing, norm referencing (instead of criterion referenced scoring), and manipulating cut scores add up to a rather important set of reasons to invalidate the entire process.[/quote]

PP, many states have in the past taken their own money to write high stakes tests for their states.   They may well have hired a company such as Pearson to come up with the the test questions.

The particular tests you are referencing that were used in NY and in KY were aligned to Common Core objectives, but they were not the PARRC tests that are still being developed and piloted even as we speak.   The administration of the NY test and the KY test were NOT therefore pilots of the PARRC.   However, if these tests had poorly written items, and they were written by Pearson -- and certainly the 1st grade test someone posted at the start of this thread was poorly written -- I would say that Pearson should not be a company hired to write these tests, or they should fire their test item writers and hire better ones.

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As shown above, PARCC is Pearson. Just another name for the same thing. Pearson is writing the PARCC tests, and they've been testing out questions on kids in the guinea pig states of NY and Kentucky .

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