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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Not too shy to talk
 
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2017/10/28 19:03 Last Login : 2019/10/13 22:07 From Paulus Hook
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Probably too much lead in the water for kids to pass the harder tests.
Posted on: 2018/1/16 16:17
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Gov. Murphy to End PARCC Testing
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By Brent Johnson bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com,
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com As Phil Murphy succeeds Chris Christie as New Jersey's governor Tuesday, there's at least one thing students and teachers in the state's public schools can expect: an end to controversial PARCC testing. But when and how that will happen remains unclear. Murphy on Monday reiterated his campaign promise to eliminate the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career tests, which are computerized exams designed to be more challenging than previous standardize tests. More
Posted on: 2018/1/15 22:54
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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PARCC Results - How it Went in Jersey City
(Excerpt) Here's a more specific breakdown of how things turned out in Jersey City: 1. In every grade, the percentage of Jersey City students who met grade-level expectations for math and science was lower than the overall state percentage. 2. Among the seven district high schools, there are large disparities in English and math between the McNair Academic High and Infinity Institute (magnet schools with competitive admissions processes and fewer special education students) and the other schools. 3. Among the four district middle schools, there were also disparities in English and math outcomes between Academy I and M.S. 4, and M.S. 7 and M.S. 40. 4. Among 10 district K-5 elementary schools, English and math testing outcomes spanned the gamut, with many schools falling in between. 5. Among the K-8 grammar schools, English and math testing outcomes also spanned the gamut, with many schools falling in between. Only P.S. 5 met or exceeded English expectations at a better rate than the overall state percentage in all three grades (three other schools did so in one or two grades). At the extremes, just 2 percent of P.S. 15 eighth grade students met or exceeded grade-level expectations in English, compared to 53 percent of eighth grade students at P.S. 38. In eighth grade math, 0 percent of P.S. 15, 14 and 34 students met or exceeded grade-level expectations, compared to 48 percent at P.S. 11. But about 85 percent of P.S. 27's accelerated students taking Algebra I met or exceeded Algebra I expectations, better than the state overall.
Posted on: 2015/12/28 16:30
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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By Stephen Stirling | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter on October 20, 2015 at 5:09 PM New Jersey released the results of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exams today, showing that the majority of students failed to meet grade-level requirements in both English and Math. More
Posted on: 2015/10/20 21:35
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Posted on: 2015/3/12 1:14
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Quote:
Everyone in the debate has lost sight on what really matters. It's not test scores. It's not grad percentages. It's about the end result for the kids - primarily college placement and jobs. There's too much focus on parents, teachers and taxpayers needs, and almost no focus on what the kids really need. But you are right - any metric is better than no metric.
Posted on: 2015/2/21 23:32
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Posted on: 2015/2/21 14:10
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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No educational psychologist has ever said any of these tests work. Common core actually has some good legitimate points, but is destroyed by the amount of testing the students have to do.
Posted on: 2015/2/18 5:30
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Home away from home
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But this is all in the name of raising standards, no?
You never answered my question: What is YOUR personal stake in this? It's cynical but I'm sure you're not bombarding this board with your one-sided view for purely altruistic reason(s) Quote:
Posted on: 2015/2/17 23:44
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Jersey City school district prepping for students 'opting out' of PARCC exams
Jersey City's school district may join a growing number of districts statewide that are creating policies for students whose parents are opting them out of controversial new standardized testing that begins next month. A measure up for consideration at Thursday's Jersey City Board of Education meeting outlines what parents must do if they don't want their kids to take the new PARCC exams and what those students will do while others do. BOE Vice President Marilyn Roman said the measure shouldn't be interpreted as opposition to the new tests, which are aligned with Common Core, new federal standards introduced into classrooms last year. "We don't want to disrupt the other children or have a child just sit and do nothing," Roman said. If approved by the BOE, the measure would require parents to contact Schools Superintendent Marcia V. Lyles in writing if they want their children not to take the computer-based PARCC exam. Any students not taking the test would be placed "in an alternate educational environment." Too many parents opting out could cause a major problem: to receive federal funding, PARCC participation must not fall below 95 percent. That would deny Jersey City's 27,000-student school district about $27 million. Opponents of the tests say New Jersey's waiver from federal No Child Left Behind standards eliminates the need for 95 percent participation, but state Department of Education spokesman Michael Yaple said the participation rate is in effect under the waiver. School districts in Montclair and Livingston have also implemented policies regarding parents who are opting out of PARCC, which stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. Some parents have said the tests, designed to be more rigorous than predecessors NJASK and HSPA, are too difficult for them, let alone their children. Prepping for the test is "sucking the life out of the children," one Jersey City teacher said at a state education hearing last week. Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook. http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... tudents.html#incart_river
Posted on: 2015/2/17 22:03
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Home away from home
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I'll repeat what I have said elsewhere:
The problems with Common Core and PARCC relate a lot more to their effect on adults than on children. That is to say, I don't think teaching these standards, and measuring them with annual tests, is by itself harmful or developmentally inappropriate for children. The problem arises with how political leaders, school superintendents, teachers, their unions, and parents, are, to be blunt, freaking out over them. Any measurement is subject to an observer effect, where the measurement itself affects the result. If we simply gave the tests and used them to measure progress and help students where they needed help, they could have use. But the result is massive test prep, threats to close schools, fire teachers, etc.
Posted on: 2015/2/17 20:32
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Just can't stay away
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I find it fascinating that the rhetoric from anti-parcc testing suggests that it intentionally sets children up to fail. Then you watch the videos of those anti-parcc teachers and parents who have taken the practice tests and it's like a contest to see who can make it sound more impossible. When you have educators planting the suggestion that parcc tests are a difficult waste of time to children, that's more defeatist than the test ever could be. After witnessing several teachers and parents do this in person, I decided to try a variety of the practice tests. I did pretty well considering I haven't been in school or used a graphing calculator since the 90s. While I agree that the school year should not be monopolized by test prep, and it's a no-brainer that any test should be age-appropriate, I feel that if the test is actually covering material that is already part of the standard curriculum, then it's not an out-of-control monster that feeds on children.
Posted on: 2015/2/17 18:34
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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The School District of Jersey City Parental Withdrawal from Mandated State-Wide Testing is on the agenda for tonight's caucus meeting and will be voted on at Thursday's board meeting. Please read the policy.
http://www.boarddocs.com/nj/jcps/Boar ... 0State-Wide%20Testing.pdf
Posted on: 2015/2/17 12:47
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PARCC prep 'sucking the life out of children,' Jersey City parents, teachers sayBy Laura Herzog | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com February 10, 2015 at 3:37 PM JERSEY CITY — Lisa Rodrick, an educator for 21 years who teaches reading to grades 3, 4 and 5, wears a button to work every day. So do the other 80 teachers at Alexander D. Sullivan School Number 30 Elementary School, she said. "Children should be chasing bubbles, not filling them in," Rodrick's button reads. It's a silent protest against standardized testing, a kind of protest Rodrick believes is happening in other buildings, too. "Before we decided to switch our weekly tests, I had an 85 percent passing rate. I now have an 85 percent failing rate [in my third grade class]," she said. "It's taken the joy out of reading, just for reading, to learn a lesson out of the story... Common Core and PARCC are sucking the life out of the children. It's asking them to do skills that they're not cognitively ready for." With new, more rigorous, online PARCC assessments finally taking place for real this March after a pilot period, many teachers are even more concerned than they were with NJASK and HSPA. Especially because students in low-income districts like Jersey City don't all have access to computers and keyboards at home, and test performance is already a struggle for many students. Read more: http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... s_parents_technology.html
Posted on: 2015/2/11 0:11
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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The Common Core Parent Workshop scheduled for this evening at PS 5 has been cancelled and will be rescheduled.
http://www.jcboe.org/boe2015/ https://www.facebook.com/TheSchoolDist ... ity/posts/758508664232382
Posted on: 2015/2/3 15:42
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Home away from home
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I've looked at the practice tests. The Math looks fine. The Langauge Arts looks somewhat formulaic. But it's always been easier to test math than language arts.
I won't say that the tests are perfect, or that everything around Common Core has been flawlessly implemented. But I like the way math is being taught in the early grades now. Teaching English is relatively straightforward. The homework has a lot of worksheets from Pearson. Occasionally there is a confusing question, but the subject matter is relevant and age appropriate. Maybe in a couple of years when they have to take the test it becomes a lot more test prep directed but I don't see that so far. Most of the complaints seem to be from people with an ax to grind.
Posted on: 2015/1/24 2:21
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Posted on: 2015/1/24 2:00
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Quote:
I appreciate that it may be premature to hold educators accountable for the results of a test they haven?t been given adequate time to prepare their students for, so what happens to today?s PARCC opposition once teachers have another year to refine lesson plans that specifically address the enhanced critical thinking goals of Common Core? Two years? When does this stop being about adults and a constantly shifting array of objections rather than children and the skills they?ll need in a competitive and increasingly connected world?
Posted on: 2015/1/14 14:21
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Parent Workshop ? Common Core State Standards and Testing
Wednesday, January 14 at MS #40 January 26 at PS #16 January 28 at PS #34 March 5 at PS #38 April 13 at PS #8 All workshops will begin promptly at 6:30 PM The Common Core State Standards, adopted by the New Jersey State Board of Education in 2010, define grade-level expectations from Kindergarten through high school for what students should know and be able to do in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics to be successful in college and careers. Learn more about grade level expectations and the newly adopted PARCC state assessment. CHILD CARE WILL BE PROVIDED
Posted on: 2015/1/14 12:06
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I believe this is the actual core issue and the crux of the matter: teachers are not adequately prepared to teach the applicability of math concepts. That's not an issue of Common Core (or the PARCC tests) but rather an issue with teachers never ever having developed the skill to convey to students how what they are learning in the classroom can be applied to real life. That's a teaching problem. If you were lucky enough to have great teachers when you were a kid, you weren't just taught abstract concepts of algebra, geometry and such, but the teacher would find a way to show you how these things could be used and/or observed in real life. Many parents are stumped by this new teaching methods because they are expecting kids to bring home an assignment that says "9x + 3 = 75, solve for x" but instead kids are being asked to determine "if Suzy is placing an order for 9 concert tickets, and there's an order fee of $3, and the total cost of the order is $75, what's the cost of each concert ticket?" BTW, that example is straight from one of my daughter's assignment. I think it is BRILLIANT to teach kids this way. Whereas before all they did was solve straight problems, they now have to actually understand the concepts and be able to apply them verbally and on paper.
Posted on: 2015/1/13 14:10
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PARCC is testing students on material for which they have not received instruction. Because PARCC is tied to Common Core student data is collected and shared WITHOUT parental consent. Teachers are stress beyond endurance; classes are being combined to accommodate more technology to implement the testing and the teachers are graded on student test performance when the teachers are struggling to learn to implement PARCC; it's unfair and punitive. The taxpayer is paying the enormous debt on the implementation of PARCC and Common Core.
Posted on: 2015/1/12 21:42
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Boodipah - have to agree. I've looked at the math for this testing and I don't see the problem. I haven't taken math classes in 25 years, but its not that difficult and I actually enjoy the theoretical/conceptual approach.
I did read a recent article recently that the problem with some of these new standards is that teachers are not adequately prepared to teach them. If you don't understand the concepts yourself, how can you adequately teach your students? Perhaps we need more emphasis on math and science in teacher training and schooling.
Posted on: 2015/1/12 16:58
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Quote:
My thoughts exactly. This has become amc's very own personal thread. It is borderline SPAM. The moaning and whining over common core (and the math sections, in particular) is SO tiresome. All those stories of parents stumped by their kids' homework assignments is a sad commentary on how woefully lacking most people seem to be at math concepts and applicability. I regularly look over my daughter's assignments and they are perfectly fine. The kids are being taught the same concepts, but in a way that makes math application to real life much clearer. How often did you or a classmate complained about learning something that you would likely never use in real life??? It's a shame that math is so underutilized by most people. Honestly, this common core math is probably better for kids' future than the rote learning of the past. But, seriously, amc: what's your stake in all of this??
Posted on: 2015/1/12 4:15
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PARENTS: TAKE THE PARCC TEST-INFO ENCLOSED & FLYER-FEB 10TH (also Educators, Board Members, Administrators, Taxpayers)
Parents sign up to take the PARCC test
Posted on: 2015/1/10 22:52
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Posted on: 2015/1/10 17:16
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Posted on: 2015/1/10 17:04
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Re: Education/PARCC Testing
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Home away from home
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amc - what is your personal stake in this matter?
my daughter who is now a freshman has taken a bunch of these tests and it really didn't bother her, and my understanding is that she found it "pretty easy" I really want to understand and there seems to be a lot of propaganda about this matter tell me, in your own words - what's the problem with implementing this?
Posted on: 2015/1/9 22:29
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Quite a regular
 
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Bottom line, these tests are going to achieve exactly what they were intended for...making NJ public school teachers look bad.
Posted on: 2015/1/9 21:40
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N.J.'s education reforms are more hurtful than helpful: Opinion
http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2 ... than_helpful_opinion.html By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist Follow on Twitter on January 06, 2015 at 6:00 PM, updated January 06, 2015 at 6:05 PM By Jim O?Neill It is disgraceful that the humanistic aspect of teaching has been marginalized or, worse yet, minimized in New Jersey?s new teacher evaluation system. Teachers able to connect with their students and demonstrate they are vested in the students? health, academic and physical well-being have the best chance of being great teachers. The state, however, is unsure pf how to measure or document those traits, and it seems they will not matter -- so says the state Education Department in multiple ways through the sterile evaluation process they are professing to be the savior of 21st century education. Now, New Jersey is preparing to implement a high-stakes test that has no baseline; will count the first time it is administered (which is contrary to every guideline about valid testing); be offered in a different format (online, not pencil and paper); leave questions about whether the test is assessing what the student knows or how adept they are at computer use; and has a growing community of parents adamantly opposed to the test. The state has convinced lawmakers that everyone who disagrees with these reforms is stuck in the past and a detriment to education. We also have students starting at 9 years old who have been told by their parent not to take the test, or have been told something akin to ?I have written to the principal or superintendent and told them you will not be taking the test.? The state Education Department tells school districts there is no ?opt-out option? and that educators must ask a student if he is refusing to take the test. How far are we going to push this cold, impersonal style of education which is purported in high places to be better than the old? As far as I am concerned, this is a bridge too far. I will not ask teachers to say to an elementary student, ?Do you want to take the test or do what your parents told you to do?? The state has convinced lawmakers that everyone who disagrees with these reforms is stuck in the past and a detriment to education. From testing to the teacher evaluation system and more, how many blunders does the state Education Department have to make before the powers that be realize we should admit when we are wrong, regroup and go in a different direction? After hundreds of reforms, thousands of directives, millions for testing and billions of public dollars spent hastily we have more anxious students, demoralized teachers, overextended administrators and disgruntled parents. What is the answer to this dilemma? How could anyone believe there is not a better way? Jim O?Neill is interim superintendent for Livingston Public Schools.
Posted on: 2015/1/9 15:36
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NJ RELEASES FIRST DATA LINKING TEST SCORES, TEACHER RATINGS
http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/15 ... t-scores-teacher-ratings/ JOHN MOONEY | JANUARY 9, 2015 ?Median Student Growth Percentiles? based on results of statewide exams will factor into annual evaluations Report Card Results of the first test run of New Jersey?s new system linking evaluations of individual teachers and administrators with their students? performance on state testing were released yesterday. The state education department informed districts that they could now access the measurements ?- called ?median Student Growth Percentiles? (mSGPs) ? for approximately 16,000 teachers and another 4,000 principals and assistant principals. RELATED LINKS 2013-14 Median Student Growth Percentile Report by state Department of Education The SGP measures student progress on state tests in language arts and math compared to similar students statewide. The median of each of those students? percentiles ? from 1 to 99 ? is then linked to the classroom teacher in that subject as part of his or her annual evaluation. The mSGP will represent up to 30 percent of a teacher?s rating, with the rest of the evaluation determined through classroom observations and attaining classroom ?objectives? not measured by the state tests. For now, the mSGP only applies to language arts and math teachers in grades 4-8, which are the grades in which the state administers its tests. This year, that amounts to less than 20 percent of teachers statewide. The release of the SGP information is just the start of a process that is likely to take another month or two, as state officials yesterday said there will be a vetting and validation of the scores before final reports are forthcoming. Districts are expected to share the scores with each teacher individually, and officials noted there could be discrepancies between the data and the class rosters of students attached to each teacher. Individual teachers? scores will not be made public, by law, but officials said the state will issue a final report on the distribution of scores and any other pertinent averages. ?This is a six- to eight-week process,? said Assistant Education Commissioner Peter Shulman yesterday. ?That is longer than we?d like, but we?d like to get it right this first year.? In future years, Shulman added, the mSGP data could be ready as soon as the fall or even the summer after the school year. Click here for reuse options! Copyright 2014 NJ Spotlight
Posted on: 2015/1/9 12:51
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