Catherine Gewertz reports in Education Week that the new Common Core tests created by the PARCC consortium of states will require up to ten hours, depending on grade level.
Here is the projection:
“The amount of time students will have to complete both the performance-based and end-of-year components in math and English/language arts:
Grade 3: 8 hours
Grades 4-5: 9 hours, 20 minutes
Grades 6-8: 9 hours, 25 minutes
Grades 9-10: 9 hours, 45 minutes
Grades 11-12: 9 hours, 55 minutes”
Reminds me of the song in “Gigi” sung by Maurice Chevalier, “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore.”
But I do worry about my grandchildren.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Two words: Opt.Out.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
: refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government
“LIKE” if this was Facebook.
Second “Like” from me, too.
It’s time.
Amen,
It’s SOOO irritating… and downright INSULTING that assessments will take such an extended period of time and if you were to ask a teacher whether a child is doing well or poorly, they can tell you WITHOUT the unnecessary waste of time used on excessive assessments!!!!
Methuselah is my patron saint! But honestly, thank you for continuing to speak out. We need more voices of reason in this disturbing trend towards more and more focus on testing and less and less focus on learning.
As a teacher… I just had my evaluation done (and the new RISE assessment in Indiana – no thanks Bennett – which takes HOURS just for principals to complete)… and all that just to come to the conclusion that I’m “effective.” I’m effective. I do my job. I teach. They learn. It takes HOURS to complete these assessments ALL JUST TO SAY THE OBVIOUS… I do my job. NOW… if they could just write a brief narrative instead, the principal could expound on the unique gifts I bring to the classroom… but there’s no room (or time) for that… just like these RIDICULOUS assessments we put the kids through… the kids are SO much more than a bunch of measurements… and so am I. I’ve officially been “thinged” and “numbered”… so am now another “brick in the wall.” UGH!!!
Is there any Common Core testing in grades K-2? If so, how much is there? Cheryl Ortega Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2013 01:11:46 +0000 To: cortega25@hotmail.com
Yep. The Florida newspapers tackled this issue a month or two ago.
It’s funny how our governor talks about FCAT, Florida’s No Child Left Behind exam, “going away” as if he is listening to the citizens’ concerns about the overuse of testing when this replacement Common Core exam is going to require MORE time.
the link to her article isn’t working
Fixed it.
And that’s per student who has access to a computer, right? Given the number of computers in a typical school, it will take several times that amount of time to cycle all the students through the computer lab. I guess we’ll start testing sometime in September to make sure we can get all the kids through. I feel for the person whose performance review is based on test scores and has to be the first group through the computer lab.
Does this include the Science & Social Studies components, too? or are those separate tests?
The Education Week link doesn’t work.
Sorry about the link. I fixed it.
It worked when I first added it.
Again, I apologize.
This is an important story.
I’m not sure about the elementary level tests, but 9 hours of testing in middle and high schools will probably disrupt several school days. As our test fetish enters this new stage, districts should have to publish the number of actual instructional days provided provide at each school.
PS: I believe the article’s link is faulty.
Those motivated 2nd semester seniors, with whom I deal four or five times daily each year, will just be on a knife edge and ready to perform for the CC/PARCC/BS/ARNE-approved bubble tests!*
Some of them may even take them as seriously as the sacred, sanctified, doesn’t-matter-who’s-payin’-for-it, Jay-Matthews-be-all-and-end-all AP tests (for which they actually might get college credit–might!).*
What’s really great is that all of the fancy private schools that the reformers attended are embracing this same approach because it so pedagogically sound.*
And they can’t wait for their own kids to take the same tests because it is just so useful and instructive for everyone.*
Noblesse lay siege, baby!
*sarcasm alert for humorless twits/trolls
LOL! Love the *sarcasm alert! YES, there are some trolls that troll these pages!
Thank you, Hannah. It seems the earnestness and anger of respondents here sometimes blinds us to sarcasm; I know I get cry mad sometimes reading the only national overview that’s not skewed to the corporate view.
Hence, a little “heads up!” can’t hurt for earnest and angry types like me.
I get so angry that mainstream media coverage of education is like The Onion
Earnest and angry, especially at condescension.
And trolls should stay under bridges.
Back to the Stanley Cup . . .
btw, since you made the Pink Floyd “Brick in the Wall” allusion, check out Natalie Maines’ “Mother.” Good stuff. Natalie stood up early to Bush-style stupidity that hurt lots of people
I’m glad you can find some humor in that. Those of us in the field are all laughed out. Now, we are just depressed and angry.
When I was in high school back in the blue book age, our end of course exams were typically 1 1/2 hours. A full course load was four classes. We had exams after each semester, but classes were usually a year long. Over the course of about a week, they cycled us all through exams and graded them in less time than it took us to take them since grades were due shortly afterwards. Those tests were comprehensive and, to use a favorite word these days, “rigorous.” Who in their right mind thinks we need eight hours of testing in math and English to evaluate the performance of third graders?
What is the big deal? The principal at my son’s middle school dismissed my concerns because, heck, kids have been taking tests since the time of Plato.
Does this include the “interim” tests that are “optional” (but recommended by the testing companies?) I think not. I would bet good money that the number of hours kids will spend being tested will be even higher than that.
The ten hours is just the testing time. It does not include interim assessments or test prep.
Oy vey. Shades of the old NYS ELA Regents exam, which was two days, three hours per day, four full-length essays. And for special-needs students or ESL students, up to double time (2×6 = 12 hours, that is, two six-hour days!!)
Diane, do you know if special needs students, who would typically require modifications like extended time and such, will get their double time? Do we really want to subject our most sensitive populations to TWENTY HOURS of testing?
The mind boggles.
Common core standards can bring teachers together to create true learning communities. The testing models in the states are designed to evaluate teachers and not student learning. We must separate CCSS and state testing models. The extensive testing is the wrongful procedure we must oppose with large political action.
The Common Corporate Standards are inseparable from the tests that come with them, as they emerged from the world of political advocacy (Achieve, Inc., The Diploma Project, The National Governors Association, etc.) funded by Gates, et. al., and not from educators.
Just as distraction, misdirection and patter are among the techniques used by sleight of hand artists to get you to choose the wrong card, so too are the Standards intended to distract the mark (voters, teachers, parents) from making the correct choice.
I am from California but currently live in New York. I graduated from a public high school in ’77 the year before Proposition 13 was enacted. Some high school friends from CA were visiting recently and we began reminiscing. We believe that we got a great education. We all went on to college and did pretty well. We could not remember a single standardized test from high school. Not that we didn’t take a few, we all took the SAT, but we didn’t remember them. What we did remember were the field trips up to LA to visit the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Huntington Library and the LA County Museum of Art. We remembered seeing Shakespeare every year at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. We remembered seeing Charlton Heston and Vanessa Redgrave in Macbeth at the Ahmenson Theater in LA. I realized a few years ago, that although we live in a fairly well to do suburb in New York, my children’s school had not provided my kids with these kinds of experiences despite the fact that we live within an hour of New York City, arguably the cultural Mecca of this country. Of course, I will and have provided these experiences for my children myself, but it seems a shame that the schools are not doing this for all of the children. No money. No time. Lots of testing.
Double that amount of time for ELs and SPED students. I’ve watched Newcomer English learners spend 8 hours taking the English portion of the CAHSEE which is supposed to be a 3 hour exam. They repeat this five-six times until they pass. Here’s a short film a student and I made 5 years ago about their experience…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vimq4HCJg-0
Oh, I should have read the whole thread. I just asked that very question (look up a few inches). So TWENTY hours of testing.
Dang.
The link sent out via email is still faulty and leads to a music site. Might want to send out an update.
Alex, link fixed. Here it is.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/03/13/24parcc.h32.html
Anyone have news about the Smarter Balance CCSS tests? Those are the ones we’re getting here in CT.