 Students, parents, teachers, school administrators and lawmakers have all
blasted the test as a waste of classroom time and a front for data mining, for
example.
Illinois is one of just 11 states to offer the Partnership for Assessment of
Readiness for College and Careers test, yet it’s is also part of a federal
initiative that comes with federal money and federal strings.
So, the Illinois State Board of Education defends it.
“This is a test designed from the ground up to reflect the demands of the new
learning standards and their emphasis on not just mastering content but being
able to demonstrate and apply critical thinking to real-world issues,” Illinois
schools superintendent Chris Koch said in news release last month.
“There is no opt out allowed under either state or federal law. Our
interpretation of federal law has always been that any opt-out provision in
state law would violate federal law,” said Mary Fergus, a spokeswoman for ISBE
emailed Illinois Watchdog. “Students can refuse to take the test but their
parents can’t opt out their children in advance.”
ISBE is quick to remind schools in the state’s 900 districts that they must test
95 percent of their students.
Fergus said the state board sent warning letters to school districts saying more
than 6 percent of students failing to take the test places the federal Title 1
money in jeopardy.
“The state can sit there and send threatening messages,” Prairieview-Ogden
Elementary principal Jeff Isenhower said. “But if a parent chooses to opt their
child out of (the test), who am I to argue with that?”
[to top of second column] |
 Isenhower is in charge of a small elementary school district in
downstate Illinois, and he knows it wouldn’t take many kids to push
his school below the 95 percent threshold.
“You’re talking to a person who saw two third-graders crying while
taking the test,” Isenhower said. “I know they didn’t finish (the
test). It breaks my heart. That they get so worked-up over something
that, honestly, we don’t know what weight it carries.”
Isenhower said he’ll allow parents to decide, but the approach to
the PARCC test varies from school to school.
State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, said common sense must
prevail — from ISBE, the local school or the Legislature.
“It’s a mom and dad decision,” Barickman said. “But the state of
Illinois may have to enable mom and dad to make that decision. It’s
incredibly frustrating.”
Barickman hosted a community meeting earlier this month during which
a couple hundred parents — and dozens of teachers and school
administrators — bashed the PARCC test.
It shouldn’t be left to a few brave students to stand up to the
educational bureaucracy.
“Is a 9-year-old really going to go to school and tell his teacher,
‘Yeah, I’m just going to sit this one out.’”
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