Lennie Jarratt
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In Santa Fe, New Mexico, teachers expressed their frustrations with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) tests. PARCC is one of the tests systems used for testing the Common Core State Standards.
“It’s hugely disruptive at every level at the school,” said El Dorado Community School teacher Carol Luttrell.
Other teachers didn’t want to give the test due to the strict rules.
The school board in Bernards Township, NJ passed a resolution criticizing PARCC testing.
The “rush to implement PARCC in an unreasonable time frame has created organizational stresses including budgetary impacts, technological constraints, and reallocation of staff and other resources,” asserts part of the resolution.
The only board member voting “no” on the resolution thought it should have been a stronger stance.
“I don’t believe this resolution was strong enough,” Byrne said on June 8. Byrne also said the test was “forced upon us.”
Many parents chose to opt their children out of PARCC testing.
At several earlier board meetings this year, parents complained that the need to prepare for the tests, which required students to learn typing skills, had taken up too much classroom time. Complaints were made that teachers were stressed, and the test itself was confusing.
Frustrations and opt outs are topics across the entire country. There is even a “Park the PARCC” community on Facebook, which appears from the information on the page to be managed by a teachers union.
PARCC has managed to bring together an unlikely alliance across the political spectrum. Liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have found common ground on Common Core and its testing regime PARCC.
