As our students and staff begin another three-week round of PARCC testing this week, I am pleased to provide a second ‘guest’ column related to standardized testing and the new PARCC assessment. This column comes from Juliana Dickinson, a 7th grade student in the Junior High School who actually experienced the assessment first hand. Her column is a follow-up to teacher Sue Luppino’s critique of the PARCC test in a previous guest column. Dickinson and her mother agreed to share her comments to further the ongoing discussion around the PARCC test (a copy of Juliana’s original written comments was provided to the DESE representatives during their recent PARCC presentation at Gateway). If you read Dickinson’s column in conjunction with Luppino’s column, you can begin to understand the frustration of so many with the new tests. We can only hope that, as the state continues to ‘test drive’ these assessments, they will modify the process, the test questions, and how these tests will be scored and used to assist the educational process so that the time spent is relevant and reasonable, the results are informative, and the assessment process is embraced by students, parents, and educators.
Gateway 7th grader Juliana Dickinson:
The math PARCC made me want to rip my hair out. I hate it so much. During most parts of the test, I just started giving up because the questions were way too hard. This isn’t like me, and that made it even harder to focus. I have figured out the different stages that happen within the small amount of time we are given:
• Before the test starts
• When the test starts and you read the first question
• When the test is almost over
• When the test is finally over
Before the test starts: You’re excited to finish and get a good grade, and you’re expecting it to be hard, (like your teacher warned you), but not too hard.
When the test starts and you read the first question: My first thought was “Oh man, you have got to be kidding me…” Instantly you get stressed because the question is so random and unnecessarily complicated. Part A and B are connected, and because of this, it pretty much sets you up for failure. If you get Part A wrong, you’re definitely going to get Part B wrong too.
When the test is almost over: You’re in the middle of a depression stage because you just can’t figure out what the question wants and what the answer is. Then you get another “Oh shoot!” moment because you look at the clock and you only have ten minutes left. You kind of feel like you just want to scream, but you obviously can’t because if you did, you would get in trouble. I missed one question because of the small amount of time I had left and the difficulty of the question. I am definitely NOT looking forward to May for our next test because my first experience with it was absolutely horrible and a lot of students agree with me.
When the test is finally over: Your brain is fried and not just from the questions. It’s from the different stages of frustration, depression, and anger. Then you’re not in the best mood for the rest of the day because of this dumb test.
Overall, I think this test is annoying and too hard. Also people should stop expecting us to be kid geniuses… We’re not, we are in seventh grade. It’s not our teacher’s fault if we fail the test. It’ll be the PARCC creator’s fault for making it way too difficult for us to understand and answer. Once again I’m not the only one who hates the test. This is not a good way to test children’s levels of knowledge. Everyone’s different, and that’s what makes us human.
