PARCC from a Student's Perspective

Almost every aspect human life has been rushed into the new Golden Age of technology.Along with these advancements comes the standardized Common Core test known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, for short. The PARCC test started with a hardy 23 states on board back in 2010, but has now dwindled to only 12 states and the District of Columbia, due to many defects in the testing process. PARCC is a computer-based test, though paper versions are offered for schools that cannot support the amount of band width the test takes up online.

It is a standardized test based on the Common Core curriculum for Math and English students are required to be taught. Schools have been taking standardized tests since 2001, when the No Child Left Behind Act came into effect. The Act required standardized tests in order for the school to receive government funding. The PARCC test itself has two parts. Part one is an open response section which is taken in March or April and part two is more of a multiple choice and is taken in May.

Testing online has advantages and disadvantages. An advantage to testing online is the ability to keep up with what it is you are doing while you are testing. You can flag questions you don’t understand and come back later, just like you would on paper. Another advantage computer-based testing is that it notifies you at the end of the test if you forgot to answer any of the questions. A disadvantage to online testing is the fact that if your school’s Internet lacked the capacity to test large numbers of students at the same time they would have to be divided up. The same situation would occur if your school district doesn’t have enough computers.

At Greene County Tech Junior High School the students were separated into several groups that all tested over the course of a week, since the school district does not have the capacity to test an entire grade at once. The test administrators were all teachers selected from the school. This meant there was next to no classwork for students of the GCTJHS. With most of the teachers administrating the test, if there was work it was just work to keep the students busy. Classes that were computer-based did not have access to the computers, so they did not have class.

These classes were sent to the gym to sit for the class period since their classroom was in use. The test itself was invalid test for a ninth grade student. Going into the test I had imagined it being extremely hard, which is true and false. The Literacy portion was fit for a sixth or seventh grader. It was vague and simple.

The Geometry portion was a completely different story. A portion of the Geometry was fair. It was material we had been taught, but was still challenging. The other portion was the opposite. It was material we had not been taught and not a single person asked felt they were adequately prepared.

The people who created test at Pearson Education did a poor job. If the test had been further developed it would not have been as dissatisfactory as it is currently. It could work, but it would need more work.