Worcester Teachers Union Decry Public School Testing Decision
Monday, September 22, 2014
In addition to standing by a vote of no confidence in PARCC testing, EAW is calling for a three-year pause on implementing it in the Worcester Public School District, calling for a reassessment on all high-stakes testing.
How do you measure progress with the test? It’s a joke; you should really be picking one or the other,” said Len Zalauskas, President of EAW. “We need to take a pause on PARCC testing. There also needs to be a lot more input from parents, community members, and teachers, especially teachers. Everyone wants to tell the teachers how things should be done but the people who are making these decisions are not teachers; they shouldn’t be telling teachers how to do their job.”
The Worcester School Committee recently voted to follow the administrations recommendation to split up the district, with some schools trying the new PARCC test, and others sticking with MCAS. 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.
Problems with PARCC
EAW is upset that Worcester and the rest of the state is moving forward with PARCC because it is still a relatively new test in which there is no way to compare to the old test: MCAS.
Additionally, the jury is still out as to whether or not schools are ready for PARCC testing. According to statistics provided by the EAW, 72-percent of schools need more devices to test all students, and 50-percent of teachers said that the training for PARCC was inadequate.
More PARCC Testing Needed
While the pilot test this past school semester was not without its hiccups that is to be expected with a brand new test.
According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, PARCC so far has been the more popular of the two tests, with 59-percent of the 303 decided school districts choosing PARCC. The department also says that teachers have been included in the process of implanting PARCC statewide.
“The point of the spring 2014 field tests was to test the test: which questions work, which don’t, what sorts of problems come up with technology or administering the test, whether students should all take the tests live online or have the district download the tests ahead of time, etc.,” said Jacqueline Reis, the Media Relations Coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in an email. “Spring 2015 will be an actual administration of the test in the districts that choose to use it, and parents, schools, districts and the state will all receive copies of scores, just as they would in a normal MCAS year.”
Related Slideshow: MA Education Officials Debate Future of State Standardized Tests
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