Ugggghhhh! Where do I start? This blog could go on forever..... My first experience giving PARCC was a few years ago as a Title 1 Reading teacher. I was to administer the test to a small group of students who had that modification in their IEP. The students arrived and things went well to start. Then, about ten minutes in, tears from one. "Mrs. Tremblay I don't know a lot of these words so it doesn't make sense, can I use a dictionary?" "But Miss, that's one of the strategies you taught us to use when context clues don't help you." "Please Miss, how about just two words?" "But I can't do this" she mutters and sits, eyes glossy, still fighting the tears. Another one sits and clicks through the test, clearly faster than he could possibly read it. As I approach, he says "I'm just tired of doing these tests we've been doing it everyday for three weeks!" I tell him to "Please try your best." Then I notice as the students get to the question which requires a typed response, they sit and look at it not knowing where to begin. "I forget how to make capital letters, can you help me?" asks one. Others struggle to think of what they want to say and then have to type it by finding one letter at a time in each word, talk about frustrating and time consuming. Many of them answered with a few words and some a sentence or two. The question really needed several sentences to be answered completely, but the struggle to get there was just too much for them. The frustration, anger, disappointment, sadness, self doubt, was more than I could take. When the 90 minutes were up, I tried to reassure them that they did a great job and gave them candy for persevering through the test. They went back to their classrooms and I sat at the table and reflected on the whole experience although I wanted to cry. This was day one, five more test days to go and I dreaded it more than the students!
My first talking point comes up right away. "However, as far back as 1974, it was clear that tracking student achievement data, including standardized test results, had negligible effects on improving education, especially for underserved students (Hall, 2015). So we know these tests have done nothing to help and they are clearly bias toward minority and low income students, yet we keep throwing money away at the test makers and continue to not change the system? Is this the reason bad schools don't improve? Is this why a school like Normandy can remain on probation for fifteen years?
The section on the educator perspectives begins by stating how "current educational policies in Rhode Island disregard teacher perspectives". That is what really makes me the most crazy about our educational institution, why is it those least involved in actually educating anyone are the one's who make the decisions. Clearly, those of us on the front line, in the classrooms, educating the students, learning about their lives, helping them to develop skills, ideas, and ways to solve problems, while encouraging them to explore the world around them, what would we know? How could we possibly tell more about a child than test results that come a year later and you can never know what you got right or wrong, just how you did compared to others. I remember as a fifth grade teacher getting the test scores the morning of parent-teacher conferences with a note to hand them out to parents. Most of my students' parents could not understand the results and I felt horrible explaining that the student was below grade level but what did this mean? I wasn't offering help, just trying to not make things so negative, and it felt awful.
As I reflected on my first experience with PARCC, I did make some decisions for my classroom directly because of it. First, was vocabulary. I decided I was going to try to expose my students to lots and lots of vocabulary. I make connections with the vocabulary and incorporated the website vocabulary.com into my station rotation as it allows for self-paced work with words. I make opportunities for students to talk about words and work together to figure out meaning. We've even used thesauruses to find better words for words we use too much. I also have a reading program that I really spend time on setting up and reward them for reading. Students get to "prove" what they read about in many different ways and they really seem to enjoy it. They learn and share things that might not ever come up in the curriculum but they are all teachers and learners.
The second thing I did was start a keyboarding program on the chromebooks for my students. Students completed a game-type program that taught keyboarding skills, but again self paced, and I offered incentives. Students could earn a variety of things from lunch with the teacher, to homework passes, or the teacher chair at your desk for the day. They loved it and learned an invaluable skill at the same time.
Finally, I decided I was not going to do PARCC practice only in the weeks just before the test. I was going to use the "forced" PARCC practice of the released items once a month, for one week of morning work and give it a fun name (Suggestions welcome). I will use it as a teaching tool to get students used to the set up of the test and to go over different types of problems, but not make it as boring and miserable as it has been. I will even use the computerized PARCC practice but only to give them every opportunity I can, to be as successful as they can.
Some of the comments I found especially important include "This means that the large majority of students were required to take the computer-based option regardless of readiness". (p. 5) My students were clearly not "ready" to type. "The time wasted on this test could have been netter spent working to boost their skills!" (p.7) Yes, 9 1/2 to 11 hours is too much time spent on a test that hasn't proven to "close the gap". "This raises validity concerns. If students are not understanding the test, how can accurate inferences be drawn from the results?" And they aren't even allowed to use strategies they know will help them! The one that most hits home for next year, when I will be forced to administer the PARCC to my fifth grade ESL class, "time with my ELLs is precious... I want to spend time with my ELLs teaching them valuable skills and lessons they need; not how to navigate through a computer-based test". (p. 10-11) The gap between ELLs and their English speaking peers continues to be our biggest problem in Central Falls, standardized test don't change that.
PS. I also found out Bill Ashton is from Pawtucket, R.I. (News article attached)
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