Should PARCC be parked?

Preliminary data from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test has been released by the Jersey Education Department and the results show less than half of New Jersey students in ninth, 10th and 11th grade met or exceeded grade level expectations in English and math, while kids in grades three through eight only did marginally better.

Many students, parents and even some teachers have criticized PARCC for being too long, too confusing and poorly written, but Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe disagrees.

“Educators promised many years ago a more honest, a more accurate assessment regarding a child’s readiness to meet the challenges of college or a career, that’s the promise I believe we’re fulfilling,” Hespe said.

During a news conference in Ewing Tuesday afternoon he said “PARCC is a tool that provides parents and educators with the most accurate reflection of student progress of our academic standards we have ever had.”

Hespe is convinced the test can be used in “supporting teaching and learning, identifying struggling schools, informing teacher development and providing parents with their own child’s strengths and challenges.” He also said when combined with other measures of student success it can provide a true gauge of an individual student’s academic needs.

“We want our children to dream big,” Hespe said. “When they do so, they succeed.”

When asked how many questions had to be answered to be counted in the PARCC test data, and what percentage of the answers had to be correct for a student to meet grade level expectations, Hespe said he wasn’t sure that information is available.

“They will be consistent with other statewide assessments we’ve had, the correct percentages will be consistent with those past tests, I don’t have the actual number,” he said. “I think it’s very consistent in terms of the number of questions, the percentage of questions of our past tests, I just don’t have that data, I’m not going to guess.”

An assistant commissioner chimed in, saying these numbers and percentages vary greatly by grade level and test, but they will be publishing the PARCC data at some point in the future.

When called for comment, Ed Richardson, the executive director of the New Jersey Education Association, said it’s no secret that “we and our partners have questioned over the past year the intrusive nature of the PARCC test, and the validity of the test as well.”

He also said no one should draw any serious conclusions from this data.

“There were problems with the test administration, there were serious questions about student’s motivation and how seriously they took the test,” he said. “A big question that remains is, is this a valid assessment of the common core standards and is this the right test for New Jersey, and we have never been convinced of that.”

He also believes the PARCC test was too long, and took away too much classroom instruction time.

The NJEA was not invited to participate in the Department of Education news conference.