Peter Greene brings us back to the halcyon days when central planners at the U.S. Department of Education dreamed of one big set of national standards–the Common Core–and two testing consortia, both dependent on the same set of standards. The Gates Foundation funded the Common Core and continues to fund various organizations to advocate for it and to “demand” annual testing mandates. The federal government funded the two testing groups–PARCC and Smarter Balanced Assessment–with $360 million of our taxpayer dollars.
It turns out not to have been a sound investment. PARCC started with 24 (or 25) states in its consortium, and more than half those states have abandoned the Pearson-made PARCC. With Ohio’s exit from PARCC, the number is down now to 10 states plus D.C. Some of those 10 are likely to drop PARCC. The technological problems have been extremely annoying, and the amount of time required for the testing (8 to 11 hours) is burdensome. Here is a question: Why is it that teachers can give a 45-minute test in reading and math and find out what their students know, but PARCC requires 8 to 11 hours to get the same information.
The market for PARCC has shrunk so dramatically that Peter Greene thinks it is only a matter of time until Pearson executives decide that the tests are not worth their time, the revenue stream is too small, and bye-bye PARCC.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What a blessing that would be!
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AIR is next! We’re going to tell State not-so-Superintendent Dick Ross what we think of that one too!
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Definitely do that! The AIR tests in Utah take around 20 hours per year, although Utah does require a science test, so that adds about 2 hours to the testing. But it’s still very long.
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Yes, I just read that awful PARCC monster which devoured my second semester of school is gone. The newspaper said it is being replaced by AIR which has bad reviews too. I wish Ohio would go back to its old curriculum and the Ohio Achievement Assessment. It was not broken. My students learned so much more. The common core is developmentally inappropriate, and it will severely decrease student achievement over time.
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Meanwhile, with 5000 ed reform “advocacy” groups actual children in existing public schools take another funding hit. Are they just lousy advocates? Why do public schools do so poorly under ed reform?
“New Ohio LSC analysis of @JohnKasich veto cuts shows 114 school districts get less than FY15. Cleveland gets worst cut of $13 million.”
Cleveland is a “portfolio” city. They went along with every reform that came down the pike in the hopes that they would be deemed worthy of funding.
How’s that working out for them?
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So Chicago Public Schools use test results to identify the neediest students. The help they get is firing 1.400 teachers/support staff, thus increasing class size. That’s the new civil rights movement at its best.
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I know my region is not likely to drop PARCC unless they get a “corporate ed directive” telling them the next latest and greatest scheme to help corporations amass profits off our nation’s students. There is one point I want to make in regards to this comment:
“Why is it that teachers can give a 45-minute test in reading and math and find out what their students know, but PARCC requires 8 to 11 hours to get the same information…”
I would argue that 8-11 hours of PARCC testing does not even give the teachers helpful information as to what the students know!
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I’m with you. I cloned this line so I would get it word for word: Why is it that teachers can give a 45-minute test in reading and math and find out what their students know, but PARCC requires 8 to 11 hours to get the same information. PARCC gets information all right, but not what the kids know. Its all about the bling, the ka-ching, union busting, firing teachers, TFA, private for profit charters, etc. blah blah blah
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AIR is just another terrible organization. They had plenty of technological problems in Florida. The state DOE, led by Commissioner Pam Stewart, a disingenuous political tool, tried to blame the issues on anything but AIR and itself. That’s all smoke and mirrors.
This is the reality, if it’s not Pearson, the politicians pick another entity which is cheaper. That doesn’t mean it’s a better value. When you are selling a bad product, it doesn’t really matter how much it costs. Don’t expect Pearson to just go away either. It will morph its investment into something else that will make them money and serve schools poorly. The political establishment, people like Jeb Bush, Arne Duncan, President Obama, et al., will be eager to help them too.
The politicians and elite educrats lack the integrity to admit they are wrong. Until the parents reject the standardized testing model, the madness will continue.
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I hope that Massachusetts abandons the PARCC. But I see no signs that will happen. Mitchell Chester is still pushing it.
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Mitchell Chester is the biggest tool known to man.
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Send in the clowns…
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The planners of this “reform” forgot to consult the teachers.
“When the largest stakeholders in any endeavor are seen as the opposition, you will fail.”
I love that quote but I don’t know who first said it. Do you?
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Count Dracula?
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Now THAT is pretty damn funny, SomeDAM Poet.
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Please! Please! At the very least give us something that is developmentally appropriate!
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As PARCC falls apart, here we sit with no viable alternative. And we will allow others to come up with that, thinking the same, with yet another foiled experiment in education. And we sit on our hands.
And no, less testing is not the answer. No state testing is
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I vote for no standardized testing. You have to watch multiplidisabled kids bubbling away to get the true effect.
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Right, and all assessments must be local. The state can look on if they want, but unless we present a viable alternative the game will go on. This alternative is local and whole child, etc etc http://www.wholechildreform.com
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Cap Lee,
Endorsed by Randi Weingarten? I a Newark teacher blessed by the “historic contract.” You must be joking.
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My understanding is that if a state doesn’t use PARCC or SBAC, that the only company that is “approved” for this testing is AIR. If that understanding is correct, then there really IS not viable alternative.
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No company, teacher designed whole child assessment
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Of course! But I meant as an “alternative” under what the feds currently require for RTTT and the NCLB waivers, not what is actually good for kids.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear before.
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I would like all testing contracts to go to American companies. I am skeptical of another country testing our children. Children have short attention spans. After about an hour and a half many of them tune out and begin to click randomly on answers. This will never guarantee reliable assessment results.
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I would like to see Ben and Jerry’s take over testing.
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I would like to see this guy in charge of testing.
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I thought he was!
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Classroom whole child assessments. This would be allowed by the Collins amendment to ESEA (to read go to http://www.wholechildreform.com
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Mercedes Schneider has reported that Pearson’s financial gurus are worried about US sales.
Peter is “off” in saying “that central planners at the U.S. Department of Education dreamed of one big set of national standards–the Common Core–and two testing consortia, both dependent on the same set of standards.”
The grand experiment in standardized education was spawned by governors and CEOs of major corporations, who set up Achieve, Inc. in 1996 to work on the problem, starting with high school.
It is easy to forget some of the antecedents of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
1957-58. The Russian satellite Sputnik launched in October 1957 leads to new initiatives in education including the National Defense Education Act in 1958.
1959. President Dwight D. Eisenhower urges national goals for education to enable the next generation to compete against other nations.
1983. President Ronald Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education publishes A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform–calling for higher standards to enable young people to compete with other countries.
1988. Senator Edward M. Kennedy and President Ronald Reagan promulgate a revision of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) with achievement levels that function as national standards and permit state-by-state comparisons of student test scores.
1989. President George H. W. Bush convenes a “national education summit” for governors. William J. Clinton, Governor of Arkansas plays a major role forwarding “‘voluntary national standards” and voluntary NAEP tests in math and reading for grades 4 and 8.
1994. President William J. Clinton signs the Goals 2000 Education Act (PL103-227; 108 Stat. 125) with standards expressed as major “outcomes“ such as increasing high school graduation with evidence of competence in nine subjects. Various professional groups produce new “world-class” standards in these subjects.
1996: National Education Summits are continued. Participants in 1996 include governors, invited CEOs, and a few invited educators. The 1996 summit is staged by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Chairman and CEO of IBM Corporation who will remain a leading promoter of higher academic standards, more demanding test of achievement, and stronger accountability. Achieve, Inc. is established as a non-profit organization to pursue the agendas charted by this and subsequent national summits. Achieve’s board includes six governors and six CEOs of major corporations. Achieve is largely funded by corporations and corporated foundations. It works in tandem with the National Governor’s Association and Council Of Chief State School Officers.
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Check this company and its “clients” out. They have tentacles everywhere: http://www.air.org/program/air-assessment Also this description of one of their board members is insane: Principal, Human Capital Practice
Deloitte Consulting LLP. States have to pull out of both Pearson and AIR. Parents need to keep opting out! Bring these corporations down.
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A PARCCollapse now!
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And we’re still in in MA only because commissioner of Ed Mitchell Chester also is chairman of PARCC. DESE has held a listening tour on the topic of MCAS (our home brew) vs. PARCC, and our recently elected Republican gov is not a fan of CCSS. Fans of standards claimed MCAS was a better test because MA standards were thought to be more rigorful than CCSS. Alas and alack, MCAS is being re-jiggered to reflect CCSS.
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Same thing here in Nj. We’ll be the last man standing unless Christie decides dumping parcc will get him elected president.
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New York is (currently; likely permanently) using its own Common Core flavored Regents exams, where students in both Algebra 1 and Geometry could pass the June 2015 exam with a raw score of under 35%. That means either many students thought they failed but didn’t or they really haven’t learned much; take your pick.
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It is not entirely fair to call it Pearson-PARCC. Many others were leaders in this effort: ETS, CTB, and the not-for-profit Achieve. This is not a defense of Pearson, but rather an effort for fairness.
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Reblogged this on lifeofgraceandpeace.
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