State testing was disrupted by major computer breakdowns in Indiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Minnesota.
All 46 states and D.C. are supposed to administer Common Core assessments online by 2014-15.
Maybe the corporations will solve the technological problems by then. Maybe states will come up with the money to pay for enough computers by then. Maybe students will figure out how to hack into the assessments by then.
All sorts of surprising and unpredictable things happen when big business and big government decide to take the work of humans out of human hands.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“. . . when big business and big government decide to take the work of humans out of human hands.”
Big Business + Government = Fascism
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My school has two computer labs with about 25 computers in each. We have over 900 students. How is online testing going to work for us??????
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Most likely how it’s ended up in Utah, which went to online testing several years ago. Extra computer labs have sprung up everywhere. Several teachers have been moved to portable trailers in order to accommodate the computer labs in the building. The labs are nice for most of the year, but we can’t use any of them in May. That includes the Library, which has one of the labs. Meanwhile, we don’t always have enough money for copy paper. I have a box of copy paper in the trunk of my car for when I need it.
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And this mess when only a handful of states taking the tests online at the same time – just wait until 47+ states are taking them at once.
Pearson pulling out of PARCC? Oh, my. Is the house of assessment cards crumbling?
Sounds like even more faux educators don’t know what they are doing. Ha
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I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think that it was said anywhere that Pear$on was pulling out–Glenda Ritz said Indiana was pulling out (& I think their tests are CTB/McGraw-Hill, not Pear$on).
Judging form Pear$on’s history of soldiering on despite its continual mistakes, incompetency & downright juking, I’d wager a wad that it’ll be the last man–oops, that’s corporation (although, corporations ARE people)–standing.
THAT’S why WE have to take them down! Yes, WE can!
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Computers need constant care and feeding. Plus the major wave of investment into the technology will reach obsolescence in a matter of a few years. This will be a education dollar black hole but the tech companies are licking their chops. In the end, they’ll just blame the schools.
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Yes, this was a big problem with the testing companies. We’ll see how states how the testing companies accountable – they certainly should
Yes, computers need constant care and feeding. Yes, they become out of date. But I tsome wise schools are finding ways to use technology to help faculty individualize and open up more of the world…not instead of faculty, but under the supervision of faculty.
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It seems quite plausible that technology will decimate and deprofessionalize the teaching corps. Imagine a school that buys a subscription to Khan Academy 4.0: kids getting excellent content over the Internet all day long; artificial intelligence grading all student work. Teachers can be replaced by low-wage paraprofessionals. Communities will save lots of money.
There are millions of dollars in Silicon Valley being devoted right now to actualizing this vision.
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Yes and they call it personalized learning…another Orwellian term……of course, not for their children and grandchildren.
Albert Einstein: “I fear the day when technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will only have a generation of idiots.”
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Linda,
I printed out that quote with picture of Einstein and have it up on the board. Maybe I should have translated it into Spanish so the administrators wouldn’t know what it says.
Duane
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I have mine on my front bulletin board next to my smart board. I tell the kids you may have a device/ smartphone, but you still need a brain.
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Actually, all sorts of disasters happen when MBAs try to take over jobs they don’t understand using their mantra that everything is a business and all businesses can be at run at optimal efficiency by using “scientific management”. This usually means that the MBAs, all quite highly paid of course, shoehorn every detail into their model of what they believe a business should be. And since technology is a “game-changer”, according to our business overlords, we need technology, lots of it, for everything, and right away.
Of course the MBAs understand nothing about the job, about technology, and even about business. But they do understand how to collect fat compensation packages.
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So much for those tests being “standardized”, eh!!!!!
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Not EVER “standardized”–not EVER valid & relaible, right down to the scoring. Juked!!!
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We had Successmaker Math (Pearson product). We only had 15 site licenses, so we had to allow students only 15 minutes once a week, sometimes twice, in order to get all of them online. I wonder if the test taking softward will demand site licenses? If so, good luck. We had times when the system was overloaded and we could get into the practice materials. Time was then wasted, in effect. However, I sent the kids to other online practice games or whatever.
We had constant glitches in access to things like Accelerated Reader because once we went “online” with it there were overloads to the server and we had kids who couldn’t get in to take a test.
We also had various difficulties with our own server at times within the district. All of these things cost a lot of money to keep up and running, both technically and electrically. Imagine this testing happening all over the state, let alone the nation, simultaneously. Ridiculous doesn’t even begin to touch the absurdity of this plan. But Pearson will enjoy profits untold as teachers and students suffer.
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Well, obviously every district will just pass a tech levy and buy all new computers. How hard can that be, said simple simon.
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Some districts are reducing the number of big, bulky textbooks they buy and instead purchasing i-pads or similar devices. It will be interesting to see research on what if any impact this has. Clearly there needs to be in-service work for faculty on how to work with students and i-pads or similar devices, if that is what a district does.
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Or imagine teachers already knowing how to use an iPad. Wow!
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Some existing teachers are experts, some welcome help.
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And many could teacher their administrators.
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At school board meeting last month, a representative asked how the system was progressing with the on-line testing for Common Core. The instructional technology guru for the county said not too well considering the specs for PARCC tests in Tennessee requires at least one computer for each six students. The word member asked how many computers the school system already has that meets the specifications, and the tech said “none.” Of course there were gasps from the gallery as well as the board. Millions will have to be spent on the local level to meet the testing requirements, and this is a small East Tennessee town with two high school, four, middle schools, and a number of elementary schools. This is money that could have been spent on instruction, infrastructure, or any myriad of programs that benefit students, but it is going to feed the testing beast.
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Reading the link, I noticed that the caption stated that the tests could be invalid, sue to the computer glitches (well, DUH!). Good Lord, I HOPE that doesn’t mean that some of these states will try to re-administer the tests. As in a movie, where a cop’s partner or someone’s sweetheart dies:
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
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Last year, my son had to redo the state writing exam (he was a 5th grader) because the computer didn’t submit his test the first time. About half of his class had the problem.
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Geez…my deepest sympathies, Louisiana. My husband and I are SO relieved that our daughter is long out of school–she would’ve gone NUTS!
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Oops–typing glitch (#@$% these COMPUTERS!)–I meant “due,” NOT “sue,” although it could’ve been a Freudian slip!
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Sorry for so many comments, but I meant to add (after all, I am the one who’s always writing, OPT OUT NOW!) that we would have opted her out.
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