Is it a Walk in the PARCC?
More stories from Marin Imhoff
Dates posted for 2016 PARCC testing
As we begin the last marking period of the school year, teachers are starting to talk about finals and projects that could possibly make or break our grades. Stressful right? Well on top of that, the Madison School District just recently sent out the Parcc testing information for 2016. Many people around the country are facing problems with this test due to many reasons, leading them to opt out their kids from taking it. So how does this test work and why are so many people against it?
The Parcc (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) claims to be a modernized assessment that is supposedly going to replace all standardized tests. Just like a regular test, the Parcc includes language arts/literacy and mathematics, but the company claims that on this test, students will be answering questions based on real world problems. While this test may seem completely harmless, many parents and even teachers think otherwise.
One of the main problems of this assessment was that it did the complete opposite of what it intended to do. The Parcc test is supposed to ask questions based off a student’s prior knowledge and what they learned in class when apparently it tests them on material they’ve never even seen. One of Madison High School’s own students claimed “I started out trying to write real answers, but I got tired of it and since it didn’t matter, I just ended up writing critiques of the Parcc in the answer boxes”. Yes it’s true, the Parcc test doesn’t even count towards students’ grades until after the year 2017 when it will be required to take in order to graduate.
Many people have also been complaining that it’s a waste of the taxpayers money considering it only benefits the test creators and not the school. Some parents believe the money could be used towards more beneficial learning tactics such field trips or even new books.
Overall, the Parcc test has many things to improve on, but so do many other standardized tests, for example, the ACT and SAT. Maybe in the next few years, the Parcc will improve and hopefully make it more relevant to what students are learning and more beneficial to the district as a whole.