Framingham TWPTO Recommends Parents 'Refuse' To Let Child Take PARCC Test

At Tuesday night’s Framingham School Committee meeting Framingham TWPTO co-president Kim Comatas read a statement from TWPTO regarding Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) testing in Framingham. Below is the complete statement:

“I’ve taken the practice test, it was so confusing, I finally just started filling in random answers and writing “abcdefg” in the written response part, just to be done with it.”

Another student shrugged and told me, “I got everything wrong. The test made me feel stupid. Even my teacher said one of the problems didn’t even make sense to her.”

Our children are attempting something our teachers have no faith in and are trying to beat the clock in order to finish while feeling anxious and inadequate. Their love for learning is being stifled.

As advocates for the students and parents of the Framingham Public Schools, the executive board of Townwide PTO believes it important to raise awareness in our community regarding the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers or PARCC.

PARCC is the new standardized test which is replacing MCAS ELA and Math in MA this year in grades 3-8th. PARCC is a part of Race to the Top, which has replaced No Child Left Behind.

Eleven states remain out of the 24 originally signed on.

Advocates will say PARCC is rigorous and the 13 other states couldn’t keep up.

Opponents who have not chosen PARCC are concerned with its testing format, value to districts, teachers and students, and the challenging, costly technology component.

Our children are currently preparing for this test and will be taking two assessments; TWPTO has taken the time to learn about the PARCC test itself, the process in which our district prepared our teachers, and how students are practicing to take this test. We have had numerous enlightening conversations with students, parents, teachers and administrators in Framingham surrounding this topic.

As a result, TWPTO believes there are many flaws with the PARCC assessment test and feels it is in our children’s best interest to refuse taking the PARCC assessment test this year.

If a child is already struggling with reading comprehension, is on an IEP, isn’t familiar with English and/or has testing anxiety, they will be further frustrated and possibly lose the love of learning our teachers try to instill.

Our district’s teachers were given access to Common Core lessons only the day before the start of the THIS school year. These lessons supplement the existing curriculum, adding in the Common Core component, which is critical for students to learn if they are to be successful. Our teachers cannot effectively learn new curriculum while simultaneously teaching it. This instructional dynamic does not set our teachers or our children up to be successful this year.

We are urging parents to take a PARCC practice test , be familiar with it and decide for themselves. These tests at any grade are not developmentally appropriate, cause confusion, and are expected to have a fail rate between 30-60% . This test may lead to stress, anxiety and feelings of inadequacy in our children. Unlike unlimited MCAS, PARCC is timed. Students have between 60-90 minutes to complete them. Results will be given in the fall, with no time to make a difference in student’s grades or future placement.

Extra time, up to 65 hours in one Framingham school just for the first assessment, has been devoted to practice tests for PARCC. Teachers have eliminated vital classroom time that was previously devoted to vocabulary, read a-louds, independent reading and math. This interruption causes ripple effects for our children. Our concern is they will not be kept on their educational track for reading, writing and math in their current grade due to excessive time on PARCC practice tests.

Another issue our district struggles with is limited computer learning devices, supporting infrastructure and teaching of basic keyboarding instruction to our students if Framingham hopes to be online to take PARCC within 3 years as indicated by our Superintendent. PARCC’s minimum requirement for taking this computer-based test is one device per two children. There is significant expense to overcome this gigantic technology hurdle, in the millions of dollar range, which need to be approved by the School Committee and then Town Meeting. In addition to the costly computer learning devices themselves there is also licensing, expanded bandwidths, added access points, and increased wireless capacity needs to be duplicated in every school.

There are valid reasons our district chose to take PARCC instead of MCAS this year.

Any MA district that takes PARCC this year will be “held harmless,” meaning that the scores or levels of each school in the district can only go up, they cannot go down. Districts have a “free” year to practice and work out the kinks without negative consequences to them.

MA does not have an “opt out” option ; parents must REFUSE their child sit for this test, by writing to their schools principal.

Refusing to take the PARCC test in this “hold harmless year” will have no negative academic consequences for our students, no consequences to the district, and no funding loss to the state.

In cases where there are less than a 95% participation rate FOR TWO consecutive years, schools can have Federal Title 1 funds redirected for specific interventions. Money will be used for school improvement and not taken away or lost . To date, even when schools have not met the 95% participation rate, not one school across the nation has lost funding.

We ask parents to notify their building principal as soon as they can so schools can organize a plan for those students refusing the test.

For further impact, we are advising parents to contact their legislators: Representives Chris Walsh, Tom Sannicandro and Carmine Gentile, along with Senator Karen Spilka to express their views and request the delayed implementation of PARCC.

Framingham is fortunate to have wonderful teachers, capable of teaching our students developmentally and grade-level appropriate skills that prepare them to be thinkers, problem solvers, and curious engaged learners.

We firmly believe that the hasty implementation of PARCC, is in direct opposition to what our teachers strive for their students and parents for their children. It is our recommendation parents refuse to have their children sit for PARCC testing this year.