"Lowers academic achievement by TWO grade levels!"
"Prepares kids for community college, not 4-year schools."
"Precludes students form attending elite colleges."
"Written by people who aren't required to have a bachelor's degree or education experience!"
"They used a made-up scale to hide the real scores."
"Normally, 28% correct is an 'F'... but PARRC calls it 'above average.' But the test isn't rigorous."None of this is true, of course. Stoolmacher explains,
Many of the above statements are over-the-top, cite selective authorities (the two individuals of the five who refused to sign off on the Core Competency State Standards), are factually misleading or misrepresent what the test is forcing districts to do (WWP school board President Tony Fleres indicated, "There is nothing that stops us from offering AP tests")...
The most compelling problem New Jersey faces is the inability of our urban schools to educate their students. If PARCC does nothing more than annually point out the gross inequality of our state's public education system, it is valuable. If too many parents opt out, the data will be compromised and the dramatic difference between urban schools and other schools will be artificially minimized. This, like the charter school movement, could have the devastating effect of reducing pressure to improve our state's failing inner-city schools.Two notes: I did try to find the postcard, but Google only turned up the Facebook page for a group called “Ridgewood Cares About Schools,” which bills itself as an anti-PARCC/Common Core group. It's worth noting that Ridgewood and West Windsor are two of N.J.’s most wealthy suburbs. In fact, CNN’s Money lists Ridgewood as the 12th wealthiest town in America with a median family income of $198,122 and a median home price of $611,000, And the African-American population at Ridgewood High School is 0.8%.
Labels: achievement gap, common core, opt-out, PARCC