Anonymous wrote:I think it is crazy that kids spend all that time on a test and the results are provided so many months away from the test that it is not useful in targeting learning.

I agree that the delay in getting results is bad but not because it should be used in targeted learning. All students in DCPS have assessments done at the start, middle, and end of each year in order to identify strengths and weaknesses and target curriculum to individual student needs. That's not what PARCC is for.

PARCC is intended to help evaluate schools. The goal is to aggregate scores and figure out which schools are doing well and which are not, be able to compare schools against each other, and also to evaluate how DCPS is doing year over year (and how schools are doing year over year).

However, I also believe PARCC scores are regularly embargoed until after school starts, or even after count day, in order to prevent parents from using recent PARCC scores in making decisions regarding the lottery. Which I find annoying because if you are going to use an assessment like PARCC, and have a system where parents can lottery into schools other than their IB, you should also make it possible for parents to look at the most recent PARCC data in order to make informed decisions about their children's education. If this means more parents pull their kids from schools with bad or deteriorating PARCC scores, well, isn't the system set up specifically for that outcome? Why hide the ball?

PARCC is the only reasonable measure we have to know whether kids are actually learning anything at school and whether they are learning at grade level. It's a good test--especially the math portion. It's also a good way to see whether specific schools are actually educating kids, and which schools are better at this than others.

I've heard parents complain that it's "too hard". That is ridiculous. If your kid finds the test too difficult, then your kid is not getting as good of an education as they could be receiving elsewhere...and the PARCC did its job.

I think it is crazy that kids spend all that time on a test and the results are provided so many months away from the test that it is not useful in targeting learning.

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure if these kids were doing well on PARCC, there would be a lot less complaining about what a bad test it is

I can understand why you'd think that, but PARCC is one of the few things that everyone (except the powers-that-be in Central Office) can agree on. No one likes it -- DCPS schools don't, charters don't, high SES parents don't, low SES parents don't, kids don't, teachers don't. Other states don't like it and stopped using it.

I would not expect DC students to perform very well on any assessment test, on average, because we have endemic barriers to achievement in our city. But it sure would be nice to have an assessment tool that actually measured those problems and could be compared with other urban school districts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure if these kids were doing well on PARCC, there would be a lot less complaining about what a bad test it is

DC should just drop the PARCC and give the kids a standardized test that other places/stars used and se how the kids do compared to more national standards.

Then you will really see how bad the scores are.

Funny you should say that because PARCC was meant to be THAT assessment. Every state choosing its own assessment does not allow scores from different states to be compared. Back to square one and each state stating how awesome their students with high proficiency rates and incredible growth each year.

Nope, each state doesn’t choose its own assessment. Some might but it’s not the majority. The reason why all the other states dropped PARCC was because it was a cumbersome and not a good test.

Our charter does MAP 2-3 times a year depending on grade, and it’s a much better test because it’s adaptive and many states administer it so you do get a national average of where your kid stands.

Anonymous wrote:Just for comparison in MCPS, 62% are grade level for reading and 13% are grade level for math. And in FCPS, 77% are grade level for reading and 84% for math.

For comparison, back in 2019 when MCPS took PARCC proficiency was about 50% in ELA and 33% in math. DCPS was 40% in ELA and 32% in Math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure if these kids were doing well on PARCC, there would be a lot less complaining about what a bad test it is

DC should just drop the PARCC and give the kids a standardized test that other places/stars used and se how the kids do compared to more national standards.

Then you will really see how bad the scores are.

Funny you should say that because PARCC was meant to be THAT assessment. Every state choosing its own assessment does not allow scores from different states to be compared. Back to square one and each state stating how awesome their students with high proficiency rates and incredible growth each year.

Anonymous wrote:I’m sure if these kids were doing well on PARCC, there would be a lot less complaining about what a bad test it is

DC should just drop the PARCC and give the kids a standardized test that other places/stars used and se how the kids do compared to more national standards.

Then you will really see how bad the scores are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parcc is doesn't test knowledge, but how well a kid can take such test. It's taken using computer and if your child is good at using one they should do quite well. Mine is a pro and it just happens that he does well at school also.
If I could ask him the same questions without multiple choice, he wouldn't do as well.

PARCC isn’t just multiple choice.

Too much of it is. Shouldn't be any. Unheard of in other parts of the world.

A low score can mean a lot of things. A high score means the kid has learned at least grade-level material and test-taking skills.

A school where most kids score low can be a lot of things. A school where most kids score high is likely to be teaching the materials on the test and test-taking skills to kids who are able to understand and implement the what is being taught. This is a combination of teacher/school quality and what the kids' experiences are outside of school.