Standardized Testing Chaos in the Worcester Public Schools
Friday, September 12, 2014
While still working toward making a decision as to whether the state will be taking PARCC or MCAS in the coming years, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester recently said that he hopes to initiate a study of the various standardized tests taking place in Massachusetts public schools to see if children are being tested too much.
“I agree that we are testing way to much, not only locally, but state and nationwide,” said Donna Colorio, a former Worcester School Committee member and founder of the Common Core Forum. “I am currently opposed to PARCC testing anywhere because with this new test, we are not only continuing to test our students too much, but we are also having a situation where teachers are teaching to the test rather than educating our youth.”
Of the 39 schools in Worcester that serve grades 3-8, 16 of the schools will be taking MCAS while 23 school will be taking PARCC testing – which aligned with the Common Core – next year. Of the 23 schools taking PARCC, 18 will be taking a paper-based test while the other five will be taking an electronic version.
Testing Turmoil
Worcester Public Schools are currently dealing with a wealth of questions and controversies surrounding a variety of issues dealing with standardized testing and the Common Core.
There are groups that are trying to eliminate testing as a whole in favor of a portfolio style assessment, groups trying to eliminate PARCC and Common Core, and people who are just overall confused about what is going on with the testing of local students.
Tracy Novick – a member of the Worcester School Committee – doesn’t agree with what is currently going on with state testing and overall data measurements of schools in Worcester and beyond because spreadsheets are not a good representation of the school itself.
Rather than putting an emphasis on results and which test schools should be taking in the coming years, Novick would like to see more emphasis on rounding out evaluations so that people can get the true picture of what is going on in Worcester Public Schools.
Getting Results
Unfortunately, school evaluation has become somewhat of a numbers game; better schools are often viewed as better schools have higher standardized testing scores and graduation rates, while also having lower suspension and dropout rates.
Many throughout the state are in agreement that our students are being tested too much, but there are also those who are saying that splitting up schools and having them take different tests could be problematic for current assessment purposes. After all, the two tests have a different set of goals, intentions, and grading systems, making any sort of comparison next to impossible.
“I think that more research about testing is definitely a good idea because then we will finally have an answer,” said Leonard Zalauskas, the President of the Education Association of Worcester. “I think that we rely too much on these tests for data gathering. And if data is what is driving educational analysis then I find it interesting that the state allowed for a hybrid model; these two tests are not an apples to apples comparison.”
Related Slideshow: MA Education Officials Debate Future of State Standardized Tests
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