Anonymous wrote:Parents should opt out as a from of civil disobedience. Rating schools, teachers or students in third grade based on a test is a waste of time fro all.

I don't think that civil disobedience means what you think it means.

Parents should opt out as a from of civil disobedience. Rating schools, teachers or students in third grade based on a test is a waste of time fro all.

Someone was asking whether the test evaluated hate student vs. the school. It is looking to see whether the student meets the grade level standard, but I don't think there's any down range impact of doing well or poorly on the 3rd Grade PARCC.

Anonymous wrote:It's not that hard. If you do not want your child to take the tests, do not send them to school that day. Asking or opting out doesn't make any sense. Those are testing days and there will be nothing else going on for your child to go to school for if he/she is not taking the tests. Schools are sending the testing information with dates this week and next week. I just got one yesterday.

Btw why would anyone not want their child to take the tests?

The child will do a make-up when they come back.

I agree that opting out makes no sense.

It's not that hard. If you do not want your child to take the tests, do not send them to school that day. Asking or opting out doesn't make any sense. Those are testing days and there will be nothing else going on for your child to go to school for if he/she is not taking the tests. Schools are sending the testing information with dates this week and next week. I just got one yesterday.

Btw why would anyone not want their child to take the tests?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can just say "no".

No, you can't. If you send your child to school between April 21-June 3, he or she will be tested.

We didn't take them last year.

Who is "we"?

we is "parents and child" because WE said NO. Pretty easy and I think the right thing to do. The overreach of standardized testing is damaging to public education.

Must. Not. Comment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can just say "no".

No, you can't. If you send your child to school between April 21-June 3, he or she will be tested.

We didn't take them last year.

Who is "we"?

we is "parents and child" because WE said NO. Pretty easy and I think the right thing to do. The overreach of standardized testing is damaging to public education.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the state (and some other states use the same test), at some point it's supposed to become part of the HS graduation requirement but in lower grades it's just monitoring progress. I asked what I thought was a simple question of our HS guidance counselor and was just told, you have to call the state it's their test. So at least at that level there's some resentment contributing to the confusion.

It's a national test that's been adopted by the state. There were about 20-25 states in the PARCC consortium to start (and therefore, take the same test) but some have dropped out. The other half of states take the Smarter Balanced test. Some states refused to adopt it (like Virginia, where they still take the SOL, which is a test developed by the state and state's contractors).

No. Some states are officially giving the Smarter Balanced test, some states are supposedly giving their own test that is really Smarter Balanced, some states are officially giving the PARCC test, some states are supposedly giving their own test that is really PARCC, and some states are giving their own tests (including Virginia, which, in addition to giving its own tests, never adopted the Common Core State Standards).

Anonymous wrote:It's the state (and some other states use the same test), at some point it's supposed to become part of the HS graduation requirement but in lower grades it's just monitoring progress. I asked what I thought was a simple question of our HS guidance counselor and was just told, you have to call the state it's their test. So at least at that level there's some resentment contributing to the confusion.

It's a national test that's been adopted by the state. There were about 20-25 states in the PARCC consortium to start (and therefore, take the same test) but some have dropped out. The other half of states take the Smarter Balanced test. Some states refused to adopt it (like Virginia, where they still take the SOL, which is a test developed by the state and state's contractors).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PARCC is one of the two national tests (Smarter Balanced or SBAC is the other), but states can opt out.

And for the states who choose to take this national test, it replaces the state test that have been around for quite a while. It's nothing new to have 3rd grade and up sit for a long standardized test.

Yes, they replaced the MSA with PARCC, though some kids still take MSA science test, I believe.

That's because PARCC is only reading, math, writing.

My principal just told us that parents are not allowed to opt out their child from the PARCC test. I don't know if this is just our district or a statewide thing (Maryland).

They are crucial in terms of school rankings and thereafter, funding levels.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can just say "no".

No, you can't. If you send your child to school between April 21-June 3, he or she will be tested.

We didn't take them last year.

Who is "we"?

Anonymous wrote:Huh, well this does say the county is using parcc scores for evaluating students. I heard from multiple parents that this was not the case, so I think I am not the only one confused by this test. I'm reading.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/curriculum/parcc/faqs.aspx

That is the FAQ for parents to understand their children's PARCC scores, which are sent home at some point. That is not the purpose of the PARCC test. The federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (which was the No Child Left Behind Act from 2001 to 2015 and is now the Every Child Succeeds Act) requires states to give tests to evaluate schools. States may choose which test to use. They can design their own test, or they can use a test used by other states. One of the tests that multiple states use is PARCC. The other one is Smarter Balanced. Maryland used to use its own test (the MSA) but now uses PARCC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can just say "no".

No, you can't. If you send your child to school between April 21-June 3, he or she will be tested.

We didn't take them last year.