PARCC tests are not good for children
MARCH 27, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2015, 8:27 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
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New tests are not good for children
To the editor:
The Common Core State Standards and PARCC testing are expensive: lots of new technology, increased bandwidth, lots more technical support personnel, more administrators – and we the taxpayers are footing the bill.
That would be fine if all this were good for our children, but it’s not. Our children are learning less: they’re reading less classic literature because they’re reading more informational texts; they’re doing less math because they’re writing essays about math; they’re doing way less social studies and science because they’re spending endless hours practicing for the PARCC.
Younger children are on keyboards practicing their typing skills instead of using paper and pencil which research shows leads to enhanced cognitive development.
They’re also watching lots of movies. Presumably their teachers are too busy to teach as much as they used to.
During the testing season, libraries resemble test prep centers more than they do traditional libraries. And now the giant publishing firm Pearson, the makers of the test, is employing a company in Utah, Caveon, to spy on children’s social media sites to see what the kids are saying about the PARCC test they’ve just taken.
Teachers are stressed, passing the stress onto the children. Teachers are afraid to say what they really think about all this for fear of losing their jobs. The teaching profession has been degraded and will continue to be degraded as long as this regimen prevails.
Turmoil is the word I most frequently hear. Is this the tradition of excellence in education that we brag about here in Ridgewood?
Interestingly, the people who most vociferously support the Common Core State Standards and PARCC testing do not send their kids to schools that use either the Common Core State Standards or PARCC testing, yet they want the rest of us to do so. How does that make any sense in a democracy? In an oligarchy, yes, a system of government in which the monied elite dictate to the masses what to do for the financial benefit of the monied elite.
The children of Silicon Valley executives go to schools which not only do not use the Common Core State Standards or PARCC testing, but also use NO technology – that’s right – NONE – and why? Their tech-free teaching methods are designed to foster a lifelong love of learning and to teach students how to concentrate deeply and master human interaction, critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Isn’t that what we are trying to do? How did we get it so wrong?
Increasingly, we parents and grandparents in Ridgewood want the Board of Education to figure a way out of this mess. It’s unsustainable. In the short-term we want the Board of Education to provide our children a “technology-lite” alternative to the heavy duty technology path it has charted.
We have done all this for all the wrong reasons. It is time to think about the children. Let’s eradicate the stench of corporate greed from our fine Ridgewood schools.
Marlene Burton
Ridgewood
