Uncertainty surrounding test tentatively resolved

State decision allows formation of tentative schedule for testing freshmen, no longer juniors

Uncertainty surrounding test tentatively resolved

Joe Okkema, News Editor

After months of uncertainty about the implementation of the state’s newest standardized test, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessment, a tentative schedule has been outlined for LT’s administration of the test.

Due in large part to a lack of communication from the state, administrators were unable to accurately plan the testing until early December, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Scott Eggerding said.

“The information has been extremely late in coming,” Assessment and Research Coordinator Katherine Smith said. “This has caused a huge burden in terms of communication within the school district, to parents, to students. Unfortunately information we communicated at the beginning of the year has been entirely incorrect, so that has been incredibly frustrating.”

As the schedule currently stands, testing will occur on portions of five days in March and April and will test all students in English I and Algebra I. While the majority of students in these classes are freshmen, some students repeating these courses may also be affected.

“This format is only for this year, and maybe only for this month,” Eggerding said. “We’re hoping that it will at least hold until after the test is administered.”

After the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) announced that schools could test freshmen rather than juniors, schools were given only a week to plan out how they would administer the assessment. For this reason, while three quarters of Chicago area high schools are testing freshmen, others will test juniors, Eggerding said.

“I think the major reason we did not want juniors to be tested is all the testing that is already happening with the ACT and AP tests,” Eggerding said.

While the test is intended to be electronic in order to offer a more interactive approach for students, administrators have received state approval to administer a paper version. Though this will cost the school more money, as testing centers will need to be set up in the SC Corral and possibly several gyms, issuing a paper test will significantly lessen the amount of instructional time students miss, Eggerding said.

“From an assessment perspective, I wonder how you are going to compare the scores of students who took the test on paper, without ability to drag and drop and access information and those who had those abilities online,” Smith said. “I’m a little skeptical about the validity of the whole thing at the end of the day.”

A major concern about administering the test is the disruptions it will cause to Physical Education classes and athletics without the use of likely all of the SC gyms, Smith said.

“I am impressed by the rigor and level of thinking PARCC requires of students,” Language Arts Division Chair Karen Raino said. “I worry about the frustration levels students may feel, however, especially if they are English language learners or reading below grade level.”

The prolonged uncertainty surrounding PARCC, while frustrating, has also reflected poorly on the Common Core education policy as a whole.

“I think the way the test has been rolled out has almost tainted the whole concept of Common Core and the test, even though Common Core has a lot of potential,” Eggerding said.

Though a finalized schedule appears to have been created, opinion of the PARCC remains low.

“I’m extremely frustrated by the entire implementation of PARCC,” Eggerding said. “The fact that it is already January and we are just now pretty sure what’s going on in March is just unforgiveable.”

Though testing is set to begin in almost two months, administrators have yet to see what the test will look like. Though several difficult sample problems have been released, this uncertainty prevents curriculum from preparing students for the test.

“It goes against everything we’re doing in education now,” Eggerding said.