Dr. David Hopson
The Gateway School Committee voted to support my recommendation to pilot the PARCC test for grades 3 – 8 during the 2014-2015 school year, rather than stay with MCAS tests that have been used for many years. My full recommendation can be found on the district’s website. Like the editorial in the June 19 Country Journal, I agree that these tests do not meet the needs of students, schools or education in general. However, given that standardized testing is a mandated requirement for Massachusetts students, and that PARCC (or a similar test) will likely become the de facto standard in the future, I thought it would be beneficial to gain experience now.
Piloting the PARCC test this year does not entail spending additional money for required computer devices or the network infrastructure because we’ve been upgrading these items for several years in an attempt to give our students the technology they need to succeed in an ever-increasingly technological world. I grant that it will not be easy to implement on a larger scale than we did this year, but what we learned from last year’s pilot program will make it easier to participate in this year’s pilot, which we hope will also lay a strong foundation for the future of computerized testing.
Additionally our students are being asked to take more assessments online, and many of us face the need to become ever more proficient in completing items online as it is become difficult to complete some applications without using a computer. Given the need for familiarity with online assessments, I believe it’s essential to give students this opportunity and if we can do so without losing student growth data, get extra resources in terms of time to pilot the program, are held harmless, have staff learn more, and we can further test our technology infrastructure than I don’t see any strong downside to piloting the program. Having read some articles on why other districts are choosing MCAS, I see reasons from lacking the technological infrastructure to protesting the use of standardized tests, certainly valid reasons and why each district must make its own decision.
Fortunately, I am not on any state or regional committee to support standardized testing or the new PARCC test and, other than providing students and staff with a learning opportunity, don’t think it makes much difference whether our students take the required tests on paper or on computer. Either way, we’ll get similar results that we can use to adjust instruction and no current standardized assessment used widely in the public schools measures the whole child and the important aspects of success like common sense, persistence, dedication and determination not to mention skills such as communication, collaboration, and problem solving. Perhaps as an elected member of a regional superintendent’s group, and serving on the state executive committee of the Massachusetts’ Association of School Superintendents, I’ll be able to play some small part in moving student assessment into a more holistic approach that will have meaning to students, their families, and their future.
