March 4,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A recent letter from the Ridgewood Public Schools regarding PARCC testing being held April 18-20.
“Students who are absent due to illness, family business, etc. will have make up tests scheduled for them.
Please note that students who come to school during their grade’s scheduled testing time should be prepared to take the test. Our instructional program for the mornings listed above is PARCC testing. No alternative learning experience will be provided during testing sessions. If your child is going to be absent on a testing day for any reason, please notify the High School Principal’s Secretary. You are required to send a note to school letting the principal know why your child is absent.”
This letter does seem to contradict Procedure 2622 which was adopted by our school board in February 2015. Procedure 2622 states that on testing date “a student whose parent has provided prior written notice informing the Principal their child will not be participating in a Statewide assessment will be required to report to the testing location on the date of the assessment or to the area in the building as determined by the Principal, such as study hall, media center, or other location in the school where the student can be supervised by a school district staff member.”
The BOE website states that 2622 is still valid. Many suggest that because Ridgewood High School ( RHS ) had so many opt-outs, the schools didn’t have anywhere to put the students.
Can the school force students to take the test? They can use SAT and ACT scores for the state.
School Districts were threatened with a loss of state aid if participation fell below a certain threshold. It appears the Ridgewood BOE was doing their job.
And parents can still do their job and opt their children out. This commenter’s child will be qualified for graduation many times over by the end of senior year. No need to prove it again via performing like a trained seal for the benefit of the PARCC-worshipping state education bureaucrats. So, PARCC testing is a miss this year pursuant to procedure 2622. What a waste of time and resources. Why not just confine PARCC testing at the high school to individuals at risk of not graduating on time or at all? Surely we don’t need all our successful students suffering through this pointless testing regime solely to assemble statistics about how wonderful the high school is compared to other public high schools. Seriously–in what way or ways do demonstrably strong and successful middle or high school students PERSONALLY BENEFIT from sitting for/putting up with PARCC testing?