PARCC Day 4: administrators overall pleased with PARCC testing

After four days of testing, the PARCC exam has concluded at Pascack Valley.

“We’re happy with how it went,” said John Puccio, the Assistant Principal at Pascack Valley. “There were some new parts this year so we didn’t know what we were going to expect. But we’re pleased with what happened.”

There were minor technical problems on Thursday, the first day of testing. When some students’ computer monitors fell asleep, they were prompted for passwords. According to Paul Zeller, the Director of Instructional Technology in the PVRHS district, the issue “delayed testing for five to ten minutes” and was resolved quickly.

There were a few individual problems as well—a strange response when a kid signed into the test or an issue finding service after re-opening a laptop— but there were little to no issues with technology after that first day.

Due to state changes, the PARCC was administered once rather than twice this year. The state changed the number of sections in both subjects being tested as well, shortening the amount of time it would take to take the test.

“As nice as it is to test in four days, it also comes with the responsibility of testing around 70 kids at the same time,” Puccio said.

The state mandates that schools test no more than two sections in one day.

“We could test three units a day. We have the capabilities, but that’s a lot of testing,” Puccio said.

Rather than split the test up further and prolong the number of days the test was administered, the district tested over four days.

“Our goal is the continue instruction,” Puccio said. “[In order to do that] we’re going to take the assessment and then we’re going to even out the periods with the remaining time.”

PARCC scores do not currently affect or restrict what classes a student is eligible to take inside the school. Puccio said that it would be difficult for the PARCC to affect what classes a student could take next year because the scores are received so late.

The data the PARCC provides is supposed to be used in order to improve teaching in specific areas. The district would use the scores to determine what they “need to do a better job in”, as far as teaching the material.

“The problem is, how many kids are taking this seriously?” Puccio asked. “If it’s sufficient data we’re going to utilize it.”

“I think that the students realize that the PARCC is not going to go away and it is going to be a part of the high school graduation requirement,” PV principal Tom DeMaio said.

“The HSPA was around for many decades and the PARCC replaced it,” Puccio said. “Could we lose the PARCC? Yeah. But it’s going to be replaced by something else.”

“I think the number of refusal is going to decrease,” Puccio continued. “We saw it this year.”

The number of students who refused the PARCC this year decreased significantly from last year, when around 400 students refused to take the test.

The state is currently voting on whether the PARCC will be a graduation requirement for the class of 2020 and 2021, eliminating the option to refuse to take the test. However, this year’s freshmen, the Class of 2019, were allowed to refuse the test.

Currently, students can meet graduation requirements by using other standardized test scores, such as SAT or ACT scores, and are able to forgo the PARCC. The new proposal would mandate that students graduating in the class of 2020 have taken the PARCC when required for SAT or ACT scores to fulfill the graduation requirement. In other words, the graduating class of 2020 does not need to pass the PARCC to fulfill graduation requirements; they only need to take it. Scoring a 725 would mean that a student passed the PARCC.

According to Puccio, not passing the PARCC would mean taking a different test in order to try to meet graduation requirements.

“There were students who took an assessment in the fall of this year,” Puccio said. “If they didn’t take the PARCC, they had to sit for this. It was an alternate assessment.”

Beginning the class of 2021, the state has said that retakes will become required for graduation, assuming the policy currently up for vote passes. As a last resort, student would have a “last-resort portfolio appeal” assuming they had taken all eligible PARCC assessments beforehand.

The state of New Jersey is only one of only seven states in the country that has adopted the PARCC, dropped from last year’s thirteen. However, 43 states follow the Common Core.

“The Common Core is saying that if a student moves from New Jersey to Ohio, they should be on the same level,” Puccio said. “They should be learning the same material. That’s the goal. If you’re in a wealthier school versus a more urban school, the students are learning the same thing. That’s the idea behind it.”

“At the end of the day,” Puccio continued, “if it’s going to give us something that will benefit our students and we benefit from it, that’s great.”