Many students here at Pascack Valley were willing to share their opinions on the highly controversial PARCC test with The Smoke Signal. 

“I thought it was kinda stupid and I didn’t really get the point of it, if it didn’t count for us. And I thought some of the questions were easy and some were hard.”

“It was awful. I felt like it was a waste of time, and if it was a standardized test then why were there five different versions of it?  If it’s a standardized test, there should be one version and everyone takes it. I feel like there was not supposed to be trigonometry on my geometry exam because I’m not taking trigonometry. I’m taking geometry. And if there was going to be trigonometry on it, at least make it something I can figure out. Not something with the stupid cosine or the tangent because I don’t know what that is and I didn’t know how to answer it. I just guessed on more than half my test, which does not make me feel good. It’s unsettling.”

“I didn’t mind it that much. I guess it was alright.”

“I didn’t like the math section. I kinda liked the English section because I like English, but overall it was kind of dumb because it didn’t count and I didn’t really try that hard.”

“I answered everything with random things. I like, just guessed on everything.”

“Well I thought it was a waste of time. I didn’t understand half of it or didn’t learn half of it already.”

“I don’t like taking the PARCC. I didn’t like sitting there and they gave us too much time.”

Students who decided to opt-out from taking the test also explained why they chose to do so.

“I didn’t take the PARCC because I felt that it was unneeded stress added to our already busy schedules. Personally for myself, and I know a lot of other juniors were taking the SATs this Saturday, so to sit in a classroom and take a test that I’ve heard is incredibly difficult and doesn’t count for us, and take the SAT with added homework, and just everything else we have to deal with just didn’t make sense. I’d much rather sleep in late and just do whatever I wanted until 12.”

“Because I thought it was useless and it didn’t count for anything.”

“I didn’t take the PARCC test because as a junior I’m not going to need it next year. I didn’t think it was necessary to put myself through the added stress. Mainly because for us in theatre it’s crunch time. I have been in here at PV very late and being here late hasn’t adequately prepare myself. Although you can’t study for the PARCC test, I didn’t have time to sleep and get my studies done on top of working here. The timing was not great, but also the format of the test itself. Contrary to any other standardized tests I’ve taken in the past, it’s very different. It’s in no way going to affect my future, colleges are never going to see it, and there was no real incentive of me taking it.”

Lastly, teachers voiced their opinions on the PARCC test.

“I will go along with anything I am told that I have to do from my administration, and in terms of the time taken out as a teacher, it definitely forces me to sort of change my lessons for the week, which has its frustrations. For that reason, I feel like I have to play catch up with important material that I think is necessary that the kids get. I am not one to complain about anything, so I wont. I just hope that the wave of education going forward is that kids should be able to use their imagination and think outside the box, and not feel like all the value is based on a standardized test. I think that we do a great job here at Pascack Valley encouraging innovation and imagination, and that all answers are not just something you can find in multiple choice questions and that’s not always the greatest assessment of achievement. So I hope that the wave of education isn’t changing to that mold.”

“I understand the desire for test like these, the question is, is this the right one. The second question is, is it administered properly. I’m a little disappointed that so many people chose not to take it, even though I don’t like this test. I’m going to be clear, I don’t like this test. There are a lot of things in life that I do that I don’t like and if we’re going to do it, we should have made a valiant effort, to see if this is a valid test. Because of the way it was administered and the way people took it, we don’t know that. And we know that in the second and third day of this, kids were just phoning it in. We know that. And to some degree, that then hampers our ability to get anything valid from it. So I’m concerned about it that way. And I don’t like these tests; I’m being honest with you. But I think if we’re going to do it we should have tried to figure out if it was right or not.”