Artecka Brown: Why I’m one of the many parents who want the PARCC exam this year
When their schools reopened for in-person learning, my five boys were excited to return. They’ve been happy to be back in the classroom as a more normal school year has progressed, though their enthusiasm has occasionally waned — like when I mentioned the PARCC exam would be returning this spring.
Personally, I am very excited for my sons to take the exams in math and English language arts as the results show me what my children are learning in their schools. As a parent, understanding my child’s strengths and weaknesses is very important to me; it means I’m able to go over practice sessions with them and help create individualized, manageable goals for their educational success.
Parents, guardians and families need to know whether our children are college- and career-ready. Statewide assessments such as PARCC — shorthand for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers — expose harsh opportunity gaps and racial disparities in education, which existed long before the pandemic. A survey of DC parents commissioned last year by Education Reform Now DC found an overwhelming majority (87%) agreed that “end-of-year assessments used to evaluate student learning, skills and academic achievement are important.”
The PARCC exam also helps teachers and parents know where our children are academically. Many students (including my own children) have dealt with learning loss due to the pandemic over the last two years. By finding out areas in which our students need greater support, we can determine how to help them build on their skills. The results also provide data necessary to develop targeted accommodations for assistance.
Although the PARCC exam is imperfect, it provides important information about how our students are doing academically. That said, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) can improve how it administers the PARCC exam, and it can start that process this spring. OSSE should shorten the test so students like my own, who struggle with maintaining focus when using screens, can focus fully on it. OSSE should also make the data more useful for students and families by providing rapid results — paired with the key academic standards we should focus on next with our students — along with access to resources explaining how we can support them this summer.
Additionally, OSSE and schools should make sure parents and guardians know how to obtain appropriate test-taking accommodations for their students. As a parent, I have been trying to prepare my children for the exam and ensure they have the proper accommodations needed to be successful while taking the test. Two of my kids have ADHD, so it’s a challenge to keep them sitting in front of a screen for hours. One of my children has epilepsy, so he needs frequent breaks and his seizures sometimes cause him to miss screen time.
As a parent, I want to break down the barriers to my children’s success by providing them with targeted resources that will improve their learning and guide them toward programs that will assist them. DC has a responsibility to ensure our students are well-prepared to enter the world we live in today and find success in whatever career path they choose. The PARCC exam is a tool that can help our schools fulfill this duty.
Artecka Brown, a Ward 5 resident, is the mother of five and a community organizer with Education Reform Now DC.
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This would make sense if PARCC were a valid test. Every State has dropped the test. It should be a red flag that DC is the only jurisdiction that still uses it.
So sad that misinformation like this is continuously repeated by people. PARCC was a consortium of states that came together and developed a new type of test, many of those states over time chose to make modifications to the test by shortening it (just like DC recently did), adding additional state-specific items, or simply rebranding and renaming it. Many states still use this test in that adapted form which has all the same testing components, DC is far from the only jurisdiction using it. Your assertion that a test is invalid because no one else uses it is actually flawed on its own despite the fact that the assertion of usage is in error. A test’s validity is not determined by how many states use it, such a statement shows ignorance in understanding the details of test validity in and of itself. Such a claim is patently misinformation and false. Claims like yours are regularly made by individuals who further want to obfuscate the facts and hide information that is shining a light on inequity in our education system from the public. Instead of spreading false information, one should be transparent and examine these results and use your voices to advocate for better and more appropriate supports for our most underachieving and underperforming youth. Ms. Brown has an excellent point about how to improve the timing of results as well as the types of information and guidance that would help parents and educators alike in addressing the needs of students more expeditiously.