I happen to wager that my decidedly average at-grade level child will do poorly on his 3rd grade PARCC because of the typing component. He will obviously eventually learn to type but we are taking the approach that handwriting, grammar, and spelling need to be more advanced before we begin the process where those things are autocorrected for him, (and we are working on all of these things at home because I do not believe the school is doing an adequate job in these areas\ another topic).
I initially was horrified at his schools PARCC scores, and while I still have issues with the school, after looking at the test, I could give two shits about it. I certainly wouldn’t want him at a school that was only concerned with test data and metrics and taught to PARCC for the whole year.

+100. Like your questions, PP. We're opting out in the spring for our 8 year old, no matter the consequences.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a great test, but it's not terrible. It's reasonably accurate. Most DCPS schools are shockingly bad. Posters write off the abysmal PARCC scores because the alternative is too depressing.

This. PARCC scores are a very good indicator of how the school is performing. It's not a fluke that the wealthier schools without as many disadvantaged children (unprepared for learning) have higher scores. PARCC is an objective score. Grades on the other hand are very subjective. I would question the school if your child is receiving high grades but not scoring well on the PARCC.

Not true. It's a good indicator of how well they are teaching their kids to pass PARCC only. If the school prioritises learning instead of testing AND if they do not focus on computer skills and typing their students will not score as highly as they might in another less biased, flawed test.

If it's such a great indicator why have so many states dropped it? Only two states remain! Plus DC.

Ok fine. PARCC is a good indicator of learning for everyone but your kid, who knows the ELA and math material inside and out, but for some inexplicable reason didn't score well on the test. For everyone except PP's kid, good PARCC scores directly correlate to how well they're being taught the subjects. Better?

My kid did fine on the PARCC despite the fact that the rest of his classmates did not, but it's still a flawed test. And there is no reason that eight year olds should take a test on a computer unless it is testing their computer skills. And the point remains, it has been dropped by all but two states and DC. If it's so awesome, why is that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a great test, but it's not terrible. It's reasonably accurate. Most DCPS schools are shockingly bad. Posters write off the abysmal PARCC scores because the alternative is too depressing.

This. PARCC scores are a very good indicator of how the school is performing. It's not a fluke that the wealthier schools without as many disadvantaged children (unprepared for learning) have higher scores. PARCC is an objective score. Grades on the other hand are very subjective. I would question the school if your child is receiving high grades but not scoring well on the PARCC.

Not true. It's a good indicator of how well they are teaching their kids to pass PARCC only. If the school prioritises learning instead of testing AND if they do not focus on computer skills and typing their students will not score as highly as they might in another less biased, flawed test.

If it's such a great indicator why have so many states dropped it? Only two states remain! Plus DC.

Ok fine. PARCC is a good indicator of learning for everyone but your kid, who knows the ELA and math material inside and out, but for some inexplicable reason didn't score well on the test. For everyone except PP's kid, good PARCC scores directly correlate to how well they're being taught the subjects. Better?

agree 100%. Have you ever looked at the PARCC questions? They're not rocket science. They're remarkably similar to questions on the SSAT or ISEE (private school admissions test) and the eventual SAT (obviously with material many grade levels below). They're not written in some sort of strange PARCC language that only heavily prepped kids (who otherwise are brilliant in ELA and math) can understand. If your kid is decent in ELA and math, they will do well on the PARCC.
The only people on here who discredit the entire PARCC are those parents who for years have believed that that kid is surely some sort of prodigy when the reality is, they're not 17 grade levels ahead when compared a very large cohort. They're just a lovely, average, bright kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a great test, but it's not terrible. It's reasonably accurate. Most DCPS schools are shockingly bad. Posters write off the abysmal PARCC scores because the alternative is too depressing.

This. PARCC scores are a very good indicator of how the school is performing. It's not a fluke that the wealthier schools without as many disadvantaged children (unprepared for learning) have higher scores. PARCC is an objective score. Grades on the other hand are very subjective. I would question the school if your child is receiving high grades but not scoring well on the PARCC.

Not true. It's a good indicator of how well they are teaching their kids to pass PARCC only. If the school prioritises learning instead of testing AND if they do not focus on computer skills and typing their students will not score as highly as they might in another less biased, flawed test.

If it's such a great indicator why have so many states dropped it? Only two states remain! Plus DC.

Ok fine. PARCC is a good indicator of learning for everyone but your kid, who knows the ELA and math material inside and out, but for some inexplicable reason didn't score well on the test. For everyone except PP's kid, good PARCC scores directly correlate to how well they're being taught the subjects. Better?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a great test, but it's not terrible. It's reasonably accurate. Most DCPS schools are shockingly bad. Posters write off the abysmal PARCC scores because the alternative is too depressing.

This. PARCC scores are a very good indicator of how the school is performing. It's not a fluke that the wealthier schools without as many disadvantaged children (unprepared for learning) have higher scores. PARCC is an objective score. Grades on the other hand are very subjective. I would question the school if your child is receiving high grades but not scoring well on the PARCC.

Not true. It's a good indicator of how well they are teaching their kids to pass PARCC only. If the school prioritises learning instead of testing AND if they do not focus on computer skills and typing their students will not score as highly as they might in another less biased, flawed test.

If it's such a great indicator why have so many states dropped it? Only two states remain! Plus DC.

If you look more deeply, a few of the states that are dropping PARCC are actually keeping some of it, changing the name, and adding some state-specific content. Old wine, new bottles.

The tests are a necessary evil but they do show trends. I, for one, do not want them tossed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not a great test, but it's not terrible. It's reasonably accurate. Most DCPS schools are shockingly bad. Posters write off the abysmal PARCC scores because the alternative is too depressing.

This. PARCC scores are a very good indicator of how the school is performing. It's not a fluke that the wealthier schools without as many disadvantaged children (unprepared for learning) have higher scores. PARCC is an objective score. Grades on the other hand are very subjective. I would question the school if your child is receiving high grades but not scoring well on the PARCC.

Not true. It's a good indicator of how well they are teaching their kids to pass PARCC only. If the school prioritises learning instead of testing AND if they do not focus on computer skills and typing their students will not score as highly as they might in another less biased, flawed test.

If it's such a great indicator why have so many states dropped it? Only two states remain! Plus DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apologies, I was wrong. It felt like ten days but it was actually six. Six days of testing for eight year olds. Three language and three math.

The point remains, it is incredibly disruptive. Very little else happens during those six days.

Not even all day or even a full half day.

It disrupts school for the entire day for each of those six days.

Anonymous wrote:It's not a great test, but it's not terrible. It's reasonably accurate. Most DCPS schools are shockingly bad. Posters write off the abysmal PARCC scores because the alternative is too depressing.

This. PARCC scores are a very good indicator of how the school is performing. It's not a fluke that the wealthier schools without as many disadvantaged children (unprepared for learning) have higher scores. PARCC is an objective score. Grades on the other hand are very subjective. I would question the school if your child is receiving high grades but not scoring well on the PARCC.

Anonymous wrote:Apologies, I was wrong. It felt like ten days but it was actually six. Six days of testing for eight year olds. Three language and three math.

The point remains, it is incredibly disruptive. Very little else happens during those six days.

Not even all day or even a full half day.

Anonymous wrote:It's not a great test, but it's not terrible. It's reasonably accurate. Most DCPS schools are shockingly bad. Posters write off the abysmal PARCC scores because the alternative is too depressing.

so true, it's not great but it's something use the data along with other things! PARCC is not that difficult, agreed it shows how abysmally low some children's ability is, not necessarily the schools fault as almost impossible to catch up from pre-k/K years behind. So basically tells you who will be your child's peers academically at the present year.

It's not a great test, but it's not terrible. It's reasonably accurate. Most DCPS schools are shockingly bad. Posters write off the abysmal PARCC scores because the alternative is too depressing.

Only DC, New Mexico and New Jersey are continuing to take PARCC. Maryland dropped it in Sept. It sucks.

Apologies, I was wrong. It felt like ten days but it was actually six. Six days of testing for eight year olds. Three language and three math.

The point remains, it is incredibly disruptive. Very little else happens during those six days.