Education Advocates: PARCC Graduation Requirements Are Illegal

Pressure is mounting for the New Jersey Department of Education to reverse its decision to use the controversial national PARCC test as a graduation requirement for the class of 2016.

Stan Karp, director of the Secondary Reform Project of the Newark-based Education Law Center, has called on lawmakers to take action and pressure the DOE to allow this year’s senior class to graduate without having to pass a standardized test.

Nearly 55,000 of the 95,000 12th graders are affected because they did not take or did not pass the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers language arts test that they took as juniors, Karp told the Joint Committee on the Public Schools at a hearing in Trenton on Tuesday. He called the department’s decision to make passing PARCC a graduation requirement both illegal and unfair.

School districts are also starting to weigh in on the issue, with at least three passing resolutions regarding PARCC already.

Read the full story from Colleen O’Dea at NJ Spotlight here.https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/16/03/15/parcc-graduation-requirement-is-illegal-argue-education-advocates/

3 Comments

  1. I hope PARCC goes away forever in New Jersey very soon. Most states that once participated in PARCC have dropped out. Hopefully it is just a matter of time. One of the huge negative effects of PARCC is that it is driving “analog” education aside while most districts were insistent in administering PARCC on computer. They did not have to. PARCC administered on paper will help avoid expensive technology purchases and make the whole testing process logistically easier for all districts. I recommend all districts seriously consider ordering PARCC on paper. Recently published articles indicate students actually did better on the paper version of the test across the board.

    The time, money, and resources that all districts invested across the country for students to take the test on computer amounts in billions of dollars. Districts have pushed “analog” education aside in the lowest grades in lieu of keyboarding and computer instruction to prepare them for computerized version of PARCC. Our youngest students would be better served tinkering and discovering dimensional reality, forming letters precisely with straight and curved lines and a dot here and there, and use their eyes to see into the wonderful depths of reality rather than a screen. I believe we build a far more capable student that way – a student destined to better employ technology in a much more effective way with a mind finely attuned to reality’s many nuances – later on.

    David Di Gregorio

    1. There are many issues here that are getting confused:

      1. Paper vs. computer tests. Pretty much all testing is going the computerized format as it is easier to administer and analyze the data.

      2. PARCC vs. non-PARCC tests. Those states that have left the PARCC test have adopted tests that are essentially the same. It is misleading to suggest that states that have left PARCC are not doing testing, or are doing a very different type of testing.

      3. Analog education vs. digital education: This is a decision that school districts have been making even before computerized tests were used. I agree that it is a mistake to have such widespread use of computers in the classroom. This trend is happening independent of PARCC or other test.

      1. PARCC has pushed the computers in the classroom at the youngest age. Yes, districts have blindly gone along with this stupidity.

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