PARCC testing across the state of New Jersey was canceled due to a computer glitch. The state education commissioner said he was not responsible for the problem. He blamed it for Pearson. Actually, he is responsible for the problem. He made the decision to stick with PARCC, even those most of the original 24 states who signed on have abandoned PARCC. At last count, only six states and D.C. still use PARCC. Shame on the commissioner for ducking responsibility for a massive fail! Who will hold him accountable? How much instructional time will be wasted giving the tests twice?
New Jersey schools were forced to postpone PARCC testing in grades 3 through 11 Wednesday morning because of a technical error that prevented students from logging on to the computerized exams, state Education Commissioner David Hespe said.
The problem is with the testing platform provided by Pearson, the company that creates the exams, called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) tests, Hespe said.
Hespe called the technical error “totally unacceptable” but did not provide specific details of what went wrong.
“This is not a problem on our end,” Hespe said. “This is a problem on Pearson’s end.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Who, in Jersey, applies accountability? The same people dragging their feet, in the Christie bridge debacle?
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And what about the kids who are supposed to pass the tests in order to graduate? They are even more invalid than usual now.
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“They are even more invalid than usual now.”
NO! (bet you all never thought you’d see that response out of me-ha ha)
They not “more invalid” as that is a logical impossibility. Once determined to be invalid, as Wilson has proven, the tests are just that, invalid. Can’t be any more or less invalid. They are just as invalid as always.
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You’re right sematically, of course, Duane, but you get my meaning. (Smiles and waives toward Missouri).
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Te amo.
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Accountability and The State of New Jersey those two words cannot be used in the same sentence. Governor Christie, Commissioner Hespe, The State Board of Education and every single legislator that is backing this test up needs to go – they all need to be voted OUT!
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*those words
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LMR,
The NJ Board of Education members are appointed by the governor; they aren’t elected. Several have been board member/administrator of private schools, where PARCC is not required.
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Looks like Hespe’s VAM rating just dropped to near zero.
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If I am not mistaken, with politicians, the scale actually goes below zero:
They call those “VAM-negative”
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Hanna Skandera is doing a bang up job these days as the head of PARCC, ensuring accountability and rigor across the land! We in New Mexico are so glad she’s at the helm!
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More hacking!?
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Good thing the lousy test is all online. NJ couldn’t allow pencil and paper .
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Steven Gallon III, former Plainfield, N.J superintendent, is running for Miami-Dade school board. He entered a pretrial intervention program with the condition he never works for New Jersey public schools in exchange for his charges being dismissed.
http://www.floridabulldog.org/2016/04/banned-in-new-jersey-but-ex-superintendent-running-for-a-seat-on-the-miami-dade-school-board/
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Some people have no shame but plenty of gall, eh!
What a story!
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Sub T,
Thank you for update re former Plainfield Supt. It was distressing to watch his time in district.
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Yes!
Y.E.S!
Devine intervention?
May all tests crash!
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sounds like they will just postpone the test… wish they really would cancel it!
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Sent March 6 – too bad they are not a bit flexible / reasonable. There was never a response.
David C. Hespe
Commissioner
New Jersey Department of Education
100 River View Plaza
P.O. Box 500
Trenton, NJ 08625
Dear Commissioner Hespe,
Out of concern for my son’s education and the education of all his classmates in Englewood Cliffs Public Schools, I have requested the next PARCC test be administered via pencil and paper. I have requested this for the following reasons:
1.Article after article both in professional journals and the press clearly show students perform better across the board with the pencil and paper version of PARCC.
2. In order to prepare students for a computer administered PARCC, emphasis on computer operation and keyboarding in the lowest grades have pushed aside teaching handwriting and other important “analog” skills so important for child’s development.
3. The inordinate amount of tax dollars used to purchase technology to make administering a test via computer possible – especially in the lowest grade levels.
On the local level, it has been unclear if districts are free to choose how to administer the test, so I contacted your offices at the DOE. After speaking with several officials, a conference call was organized between me and Don Mitchell, your deputy commissioner and his legal council, on Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 3:30 p.m. They cited the following regulation as your authority dictating to districts how the PARCC test can be administered:
6A:8-4.1 Statewide assessment system
(a) The Commissioner, in accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:7A-10, may implement assessment of student achievement in the State’s public schools in any grade(s) and by such assessments as he or she deems appropriate. The Commissioner shall report to the State Board the results of such assessments.
Since the regulation is vague, I have asked Mr. Don Mitchell and his legal council for clarification in writing whether you, Mr. David Hespe, require all districts to administer the PARCC test by computer. I would also like to know what the consequences would be, if any, were a district to administer the pencil and paper test as they saw fit.
Should you insist on the computerized version, students would not perform as well as they might have, and this would be a poor reflection on themselves, their school, and the entire state. As a parent, I would be very upset knowing my child could have performed better.
I ask that you clarify this to all districts, including my own in Englewood Cliffs in the coming days. Thank you in advance for your attention regarding this important matter.
Sincerely,
David Di Gregorio, Parent
Englewood Cliffs, NJ
CC:
Superintendents
Press
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Today to a state BOE member:
Dear Dr. Strickland,
Today the whole Pearson system failed – and the taxpayers paid a handsome sum for Pearson to administer PARCC. Total up all the man-hours this delay has caused, all the upgrades caused by the test administered via computer – on top of the original cost paid to Pearson.
It is too bad that my words about administering such a test on paper have been ignored by the commissioner. It would take ONE or TWO school days for a test to be administered on paper throughout the state. I write you as a father with a son in the public school system – but I a also as an educator in the trenches seeing this situation first hand and how it totally disrupts schools.
Thank you in advance for reading and carefully considering. My heart is with all the students. By the way, the commissioner never responded to my letter asking exactly what the ramifications/punishment would be should a district insist on administering PARCC on paper.
David Di Gregorio
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Makes you wonder if Bret Schundler’s (former NJ Education Commissioner) failure on NJ’s first Race to the Top application was intentional.
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So who are the states besides Maryland and Massachusetts and also DC? And what is speculation as to why they continue to hold fast to this disaster of a test?
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Who are the states that continue with Parcc (what i meant to say)…
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According to the PARCC website, In the 2015-16 school year, there are sevent fully participating states and the District of Columbia–Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. Three states are “participating at various levels” which usually means they have access to the item bank from PARCC. Louisiana is on that listas well as the Bureau of Indian Education and Department of Defense schools. Fairtest is a go-to website for reports on testing, including fiascos.
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Accountability is only for teachers and applies only when “Education Reformers” can prove with flawed logic and a flawed system that it’s the teachers that are the problem and not systems of poverty, de-facto segregation, and an organizational structure in our poorest schools looking to make education profitable.
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Sounds like hackers to me. I never thought I could feel good about something that’s illegal.
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Don’t think it was hacking. None of the various other state wide system failures were. In almost every case it is a matter of improper load testing on the system itself used to administer the exam. “Ok, everyone click start, now.” Boom. Goes down. That in addition to just overall large numbers in a complex online testing environment. Much like the first year of the Obamacare website. Poorly designed, full of tech holes (plus security holes), poor user interface, etc. Millions and millions spent across the nation only to cancel in NJ, Alaska, Kansas, Florida, etc. Fairtest.org has written extensively about the issues in the last few years. http://www.fairtest.org/computerized-school-exam-problems-twothirds-states
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The centralization of this testing is at the crux of the matter and such a central design should never have been allowed in the first place. I am not a fan of the test – at all – I am less of a fan of the insistence it be taken on computer.
The time, money, and resources that all districts invested across the country for students to take the test on computer amounts in billions of dollars. Districts have pushed “analog” education aside in the lowest grades in lieu of keyboarding and computer instruction to prepare them for computerized version of PARCC.
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Truly pathetic evasion of responsibility.
http://bill.from.net/autonomy
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Nothing wrong with cheering the utter failure of PARCC to deliver on testing today. But we know there was a mess made of the school day, and guess who had to clean it all up? Right – teachers! Here’s an on-the-ground account from Bob Braun in NJ:
http://www.bobbraunsledger.com/how-nj-teachers-rescued-children-from-pearsons-parcc-computer-crash/
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A big fat F! What a waste of time, energy, and of course MONEY! The toll taken on everyone… truly disgusting. Crushing costs to boot. All in the name of 21st century learning, college and career readiness, etc…..
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Here is the essential question. If 7 year olds were breaking down would the state cancel the PARCC?
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