LETTERS

Still no RI law that mandates participation in the PARCC

Posted 3/10/15

To the Editor:

We the undersigned are Rhode Island parents, grandparents, teachers, retired teachers, and concerned citizens – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. We are not misinformed …

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LETTERS

Still no RI law that mandates participation in the PARCC

Posted

To the Editor:

We the undersigned are Rhode Island parents, grandparents, teachers, retired teachers, and concerned citizens – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. We are not misinformed about the nature and purposes of the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC testing. We have spent countless hours of our own time researching, reading, discussing, commenting, and connecting with others across RI and across the country about this topic. Across the country, countless teachers and parents have spoken up about the harm of the Common Core, high-stakes standardized testing in general, and the PARCC testing in particular. Across the country, tens of thousands of families have refused to allow their children to participate in this egregious corporate/national plan to confuse, deflate, rank, sort, and track the public school children of America, which will result in the discouragement and alienation of many.

The PARCC testing means hours of valuable instructional time lost in favor of teaching to the test. RIDE’s claim that there is no “test prep” for the PARCC does not agree with what Rhode Island teachers, parents, and students are experiencing.

The PARCC testing means time lost to yearly tests given in multiple parts, disrupting the school day from much of March through May, particularly in high school. 

The PARCC testing means diverting a significant portion of school budgets away from instruction in order to pay for tests, test prep materials, training manuals, and computers or other electronic devices required for testing.

The PARCC testing means that the subjects tested – math and English language arts – take priority, and so districts remove resources from untested subjects such as history, social studies, civics, the arts, and even science. Music, drama, libraries, counselors, and other programs and resources vital to students’ development are falling by the wayside.

The PARCC testing means pushing children beyond developmentally appropriate learning, (e.g., trying to introduce Algebra to first graders) and therefore hindering learning of essential, appropriate learning (e.g., addition and multiplication tables).

The PARCC testing means further marginalizing children with special needs – English language learners, students with IEPs and 504 plans, and children from high poverty neighborhoods. It does these students a particular disservice to force-feed them a harmful diet of test prep in reading and math.

The PARCC testing means test questions which are confusing, unnecessarily complicated, or purposely deceptive. Countless parents with advanced degrees have testified that many of the Common Core worksheets and PARCC sample test questions are convoluted and confusing. Even they cannot determine the “correct” answer anticipated by the test makers.

The PARCC testing means teachers being unfairly judged on the basis of one company’s test scores.

The PARCC testing means handing our children’s education without question to private business monopolies such as Pearson, with the company’s bottom line as their priority, blurring the focus on the obvious needs, interests, and well being of our children.

The PARCC testing means handing reams of our children’s potentially personally identifiable data to third party vendors, which intentionally or unintentionally can have disastrous consequences for them.

At a RI Department of Education/RI PTA information session entitled “Common Core: Just the Facts” held on Nov. 12, 2014, Mary Ann Snider, RIDE’s Chief of Educator Excellence and Instructional Effectiveness, admitted that there is no law that requires students to take the PARCC and stated that RIDE certainly would not punish students or their teachers for students not taking the test.

In a field memo to all RI superintendents on Jan. 16, 2015, Commissioner Gist answered the question “Will PARCC affect my child’s grades?” with the following statement: “This year, we will not have PARCC results during the current school year, so PARCC results will not affect your child’s grade in this school year.”

RIDE spokesman Elliot Krieger, Office of the Commissioner, wrote in an email on Jan. 30, 2015: “Any students not approved for non-testing who do not participate in PARCC assessments will count against school, district, and state participation rates. We will count as non-participants (rather than participants with a score of zero) any students who make no effort to take PARCC assessments, including those who attend a testing session.”

So, please know that we, the parents, grandparents, teachers, retired teachers, and concerned citizens of RI will not accept RIDE’s authoritarian demands that every child in school on testing day will be tested. As Rhode Islanders and as Americans, we have the inalienable right to follow our conscience and to do what is in the best interest of our children. Taking the PARCC tests is not in their best interest. Parents assert their right to Refuse the PARCC.

(Adapted with permission from Colleen Daly Martinez, Opt Out of State Standardized Tests - New Jersey)

Donna J. Hawkins Walsh, East Providence

Patricia Hincks, retired teacher, East Greenwich

Kim Zito, Charlestown (Chariho)

Suzanne Arena, Cranston, Decoding Dyslexia RI

Debbie Flitman, Cranston, parent of a student in Cranston and a student in Pawtucket

Donison Allen, parent, Burrillville

Jonathan J. Thomson, Pawtucket

Jean Patricia Lehane, parent, Portsmouth

Meggan Freire, Little Compton

Sheila Resseger, Cranston, retired teacher, RI School for the Deaf

Melissa Picard Hecht

Carole Marshall, retired teacher, Providence Public Schools

Dr. Daniel P. Snowman, RI College, parent, Smithfield

Janice Miller, grandparent, Cranston

Hannah Resseger, M.A.

Jean Ann Guliano, parent, East Greenwich

Dr. Dannie Ritchie, MD, MPH, professor and concerned citizen, Providence

Wendy Holmes, Providence, Professor Emerita, URI

Peg Bugara, Little Compton, Retired Educator, Newport Public Schools

Kerry Feather, parent of three children, Cumberland

Stacie Laplume Giles, Warwick

Ken Maynard, concerned grandfather, Riverside

Holly Bellucci, parent, Smithfield

Eloise O’Shea-Wyatt, retired teacher, opposed to all privatization

Jennifer Thomson, mother, Pawtucket

Comments

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  • JeanneBallou

    I am writing in support of the above position statement and in the hope that my name may be associated with those who crafted and signed it. RIDE and the Commissioner must be held accountable for promulgating policies that undermine public education and defy common sense. The "smoke-and-mirrors" approach that constitutes RIDE's "guidance" on standardized testing is designed to confuse and intimidate and needs to be dismantled, now! (In fact, there is a statement in one of the Commissioner's field notes implying that students not participating in PARCC must be truant from school on testing days, as everyone present in school on test days will participate). Since money seems to motivate the so-called educational leaders in this State, I think the best thing to do would be to strive for every public school district in RI to just barely achieve the required 95% test participation rate on this potentially harmful PARCC. They need to know that we the people mean business, and we're not going away.

    Friday, March 13, 2015 Report this

  • Stella

    I would be interested to see who and the amount of money Pearson spends lobbing various State boards and Colleges. They even control the testing material that teachers are required to pass. Way too much control given to one company. Take a little time and read who they are and who controls the stock. Follow the money.

    Saturday, March 14, 2015 Report this

  • falina

    Something EVERY student and parent should be aware of: Pearson, the company who makes these tests are monitoring students' social media accounts. The name of the company doing the monitoring is Caveon.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/maureensullivan/2015/03/18/when-does-parcc-test-security-turn-into-spying-on-kids/2/

    A great comment from a concerned parent:

    " This is not just about whether teenagers need to be reminded that what they put on social media is public. These are issues of privacy and free speech and conflict of interest and very likely corruption. Before the test was given were parents sent a notice that their children’s accounts were monitored and their kids could face discipline? Who are the people hired to stalk/monitor children’s social media? Why don’t parents know a company called Caveon is hired to do this work and it will not reveal how it undertakes this monitoring. School officials need parental consent before a child can go on a field trip. Why doesn’t the FERPA law give parents the right to consent before student data is collected and shared with a third party vendor like Pearson? What role did the NJ DOE play and why does it appear that it acted at the request of a private, foreign corporation? Are the costs of this “monitoring” built into the contract that is paid with taxpayer dollars? Is this how taxpayers want their $’s spent? How long does this “monitoring” go on? Forever? As a third party contractor Pearson has access to vast amounts of personal, private information about children. The New York Times has reported that private information has been used to locate and identify tweeter(s) before. Are these incidents now recorded in that child’s record? Yesterday it was revealed that after this latest controversy erupted, a NJ testing official who had stated this was all an issue of parents and teachers not understanding social media, happens to be married to a subcontractor to Pearson, a subcontractor developing its national student database that provides the larger company with access to student records in New Jersey and the nation. Did this influence her conduct in this situation? What role did she play in approval of the contract with Pearson and the allocation of funds? Is defending the intellectual property rights of a private corporation more important than the rights of parents and students? Do we really want to accuse an 8 year old telling his or her parent about a test after school of doing something wrong? Are these tests even about education? I hope all parents will refuse to allow their child to take the test."

    Thursday, March 19, 2015 Report this

  • falina

    From a former Pearson employee: "Portia Massachusetts Yesterday

    I've already commented on this article but I feel compelled to add that having worked for Pearson for years, I regard it as parasitic on public school systems and damaging to public education, both from the viewpoint of students and of teachers. The test content is shoddy and superficial, the test results dubious at best. From inside, Pearson's perverse incentive is to make sure that just enough people pass the tests that Pearson keeps its contracts, but just enough people fail them that they have to retake them (and pay more fees to Pearson, as well as buy Pearson's publications that purportedly will help them do better on the tests). School systems and states would do better to dump Pearson and create their own tests, with transparent content and scoring procedures. Believe me, the "expertise" Pearson is selling is bogus."

    "Diane NC Yesterday

    Here is my problem with this- Pearson runs PowerSchool which is the website teachers use to input attendance, report cards etc. Student information is right at their finger tips. So when people say companies monitor social media about their product- sure, but they DO NOT have your child's address, birthday, phone#, picture- But Pearson DOES! The amount of access they really have is scary- and parents they have your name too! Pearson is so busy policing teachers and students who is policing them? They have made millions if not billions of dollars on glitchy software and error filled standardized tests, it is insane. This is not how children learn. This is not how we measure learning. Wake up America- it is time for the 2nd American Revolution and get the British out!"

    Thursday, March 19, 2015 Report this