Rather than undermine the assessment, these people should put that energy into supporting parents, teachers and administrators to use the tests to lift up all students. Higher standards do not just benefit those at the bottom, but it reinforces the success of those at the top. Opting out for fear of stressing out your child isn't helping anyone.
Scoffing at annual assessments is a deliberate attempt to undermine a collective, devoted effort to provide all students with equal access to a strong education. The opposition groups attempting to undermine standardized assessments are contributing to the marginalization of under-resourced communities.
We get why parents and teachers are sometimes frustrated by the number of tests that schools are giving. Over the years, many school districts piled on lots of extra tests -- many of them not so good --for a variety of purposes. The answer to that problem, though, is not to throw out the best tests we have ever had -- the new Common Core Tests like PARCC (Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) and Smarter Balanced -- but to demand that school districts stop requiring excessive numbers of other, lower-quality assessments.
We also understand why some parents are tempted just to opt their children out of the assessments. But all of our experience tells us that is a dangerous road to travel, for kids who aren’t tested simply don’t matter to schools nearly as much as those who are.
Not only does PARCC indicate to parents and teachers which concepts their students have mastered or are still struggling to grasp, it also allows them to compare their results to peers across the state and the nation. PARCC gives teachers and administrators detailed, timely reports on each student to help them determine how to improve instruction.
Despite these benefits, a vocal group is encouraging parents to opt out of the PARCC tests and pushing the state Legislature to impose a moratorium on the use of PARCC scores…It is natural to worry about changes that affect our children, but we have been integrating these bipartisan-supported standards and tests for four years, better than other states. I understand that those concerned with PARCC may have the best interests of their children at heart, but opting out or any other movement against PARCC risks leaving students behind their peers and unprepared to lead us all into the future.
According to numbers provided Wednesday by the Trenton teachers union, the city shorted the school district a total of $80.2 million from the local tax levy over the past six years. With the district currently facing a $19-million budget shortfall, the figures show the city paid $21.1 million of the required $36.1 million in taxes this year, a difference of nearly $15 million.
“These figures don’t lie,” Janice Williams, Trenton Education Association’s grievance chair, said Wednesday at the union’s headquarters. “They haven’t been paying their fair share.”