I Don't Like PARCC by Matt Bouma-Hannam
I'm not here to tell you all about why I personally dislike PARCC (well we'll see what happens), but display an academic take on standardized tests and why they have got to go. So you know you can trust me, I wrote an entire paper earlier this year on standardized testing and teaching to the test called, " The Impact High-Stakes Standardized Testing Has On Students Through a Social Lens. " To start, these tests are not effective in measuring student academic capability. In 2015, 89.67% of students graduated from high school in New Jersey, according to NJ.gov. But, the New Jersey Department of Education PARCC scores in 2015 showed that only 41% of students met expectations on the ELA test, and only 21% of students met expectations on the Algebra II test (these tests are both taken by eleventh graders). So, clearly PARCC is not accurately measuring student capability since students are graduating despite not meeting expectations in math and English. Additionally, s...