Assessments like the PARCC, have to do a better job in measuring the growth of the whole child. Ruth Wattenburg's article addresses the flaws in this testing by explaining how the results are not proven to display a clear connection between students' readiness skills and the education they receive at school. As research continues, education becomes more aware of the elements outside school that contribute to a child's educational performance.
As a child, I was grateful to have a mother who placed me in various grade school and college readiness programs. From these opportunities, I was able to pass the placement test and attend the number one public high school in the state. Until this day my high school holds the title of number one in the state, however, Wattenburg's article leads me to believe that is ranking only persists because of how proficient we'd already proven to be. Can the high school be the sole benefactor of the success of the students or is it a compilation of things?
The author further explains schools have numerous factors that aren't being accounted for in the PARCC when assessing the students. Every new class that enters a school isn't going to be the same and I believe that was one of the strongest points Wattenburg was trying to make; the performance of the senior class may not reflect that of the freshman class because each student is different. The school may have a varied number of students with disabilities who average a low performance, increase or decrease in skill level due to accessibility and/or gentrification or even students moving or graduating. How do we go about assessing a more accurate performance? The author suggests that assessments track the individual performance of each student as they move up in class within the school. I believe that would be the best but would it be generalizable? Ultimately, that would mean schools shouldn't test students until they've spent a least a year at their schools and just testing for improvement, not standards.
What ways do you think the PARCC can go about making adjustments?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/local-opinions/parcc-results-dont-give-us-an-accurate-picture-of-educational-improvement/2019/10/04/e11cc37c-d65f-11e9-86ac-0f250cc91758_story.html
1 comment:
Your post brings about some great points in critiquing assessments like PARCC; this assessment is truly no indication of a child's true ability. As an ESOL teacher, I also thought about the impact that state-wide assessments like PARCC have on my students. They don't adequately account for students will individualized education plans (SPED) nor do that account for English-language learners (ELLs). By pre-judging student mastery and ability based on large high-stakes like this we do a complete disservice to our learners.
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