Having taken the PARCC this past week, I have endured the daunting test. If you ask a concerned parent some will say, “No, this test is horrible, you should refuse it” while others say “It is SAT and ACT prep, so you should take it. It’s extra practice”.
2015 was the first year that the PARCC was administered to kids in grades 3-12 in the state of New Jersey. I did not take it that year because it was new and many errors had occurred throughout several school districts. This year, the company who developed the test also remodeled the SAT so that both tests would be more parallel.
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The week that the test was administered was absolute chaos: the entire school had testing for 2-4 hours every day, then a unit lunch for an hour where the whole school ate lunch at the same time. (Students were in in the gym bleachers, band room and other spots because the cafeteria does not fit the whole student body). In addition to the crazy start to the day, if you were one of the students not taking it you did not have to go to school until the testing was over. The rest of the day consisted of one or two hour-long classes.
I barely got to see any of my teachers, and when we had a regular day, nobody could remember what we did the last time we saw each other. The students who had to take it were all forced by their parents because nobody would pass up a few more hours of sleep.
The test itself was very easy, however, the time allotted was over twice what you needed. Ninety minutes for provided to answer eleven questions. So, after you finished for the day the rest of the class would have to sit there and do absolutely nothing until a voice over the loudspeaker announced we could leave testing.
This test was a waste of time; it was too easy for the level of students that were tested. This test is also a waste of time even if you do not take it, because there are shortened periods, and nobody gets any work done. Personally, I would like to continue on with the school year. Most kids treat it as a joke if they have to take it because, although the school claims that it is a graduation requirement, there are many alternatives. There are options for someone to score certain tests such as, SAT, ACT, and PSAT as alternatives to taking the PARCC.
If the people who make the test want to improve it, they should allow less time because I was the last one done (I actually wrote an essay) whereas the rest of the testing group wrote a sentence about how the test was pointless.
Last week in my school it was obvious that the whole school was on break because teachers could not assign homework, and not many actually taught lessons. It was a week of vacation for the all of the students, even the participants.
The PARCC test is not worth taking because there are many alternatives to complete the graduation requirement. The schools want all of their students to take it because all they care about is the ranking that they have among other schools. The original intent of the test, to have a method of evaluation for the nation’s school systems, is well intended, but the execution falls short. The PARCC is irrelevant to all high school students, ask anyone they will say that it is pointless and a waste of time.
