I was contacted by the president of PARCC and asked to remove copyrighted material from this post. I did so.
Professor Celia Oyler at Teachers College, Columbia University, posted a critique of the 4th grade PARCC test on her blog by a teacher who must remain anonymous.
The teacher wrote this exposé because she was outraged by the absurdly inappropriate questions. She gives examples of questions and text that are appropriate for students in grades 6-8, but they are on a test for 4th graders.
She/he writes:
“So, right out of the gate, 4th graders are being asked to read and respond to texts that are two grade levels above the recommended benchmark. After they struggle through difficult texts with advanced vocabulary and nuanced sentence structures, they then have to answer multiple choice questions that are, by design, intended to distract students with answers that appear to be correct except for some technicality.”
The test doesn’t even assess what it claims to assess, nor does it accurately reflect the standards.
Read the examples she/he includes to illustrate her argument.
She/he concludes:
[Deleted example]
“In this sample, the system is pathetically failing a generation of children who deserve better, and when they are adults, they may not have the skills needed to engage as citizens and problem-solvers. So it is up to us, those of us who remember a better way and can imagine a way out, to make the case for stopping standardized tests like PARCC from corrupting the educational opportunities of so many of our children.”
This analysis helps to exain why the PARCC consortium is shrinking. It started with 24 states and DC. It is now down to six or seven states and DC.
Parents should refuse to allow their children to sit for these exams. PARCC should be permanently parked–far from children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Love you LAST sentence, Diane. So right on. Thank you.
PARCC sux……That is all.
they then have to answer multiple choice questions that are, by design, intended to distract students with answers that appear to be correct except for some technicality.”
What a surprise.
The testing industry has based its entire business model on such trickery.
Just look at the College Board’s SAT, which is chock full of it — and I do mean full of it.
The primary problem is that the people who develop these tests are simply not honest.
I recently took 3 MTELS (MA teacher tests). I was blown away by the intent to confuse with similar choice answers.
The whole “gotcha’ attitude of these test makers is actually a manifestation of an anti-social personality disorder.
They seem to pride themselves in their ability to trick people — just as Three Card Monte dealer prides himself in the same thing.
I imagine they probably have a good laugh in the board rooms at places like Pearson and College Board at all the saps who fell for their trickery.
Kudos to that teacher for putting her neck on the line to expose these fraudsters! Make the tests developmentally inappropriate to prove public schools are failing students so we can open more charters and expand vouchers! The damage this is doing to our young minds is staggering. If I wanted to turn kids off from reading, giving them boring non fiction text above their grade level would be the way to go about it!
That is why parents must advocate for their children. Defend them and defend their spirirt against those that want to harm young people for a political agenda. Refuse the tests!
Everyone complained about the Common Core math tests, but if your kid was doing “Singapore math” (as mine has been since 2nd grade) the math tests were fine.
The English sections were the real duds. Man, it is GRIM. My husband insists it was drafted by lawyers 🙂
Can’t this anonymous teacher recognize good, new fashioned “rigor” when she sees it?
The ed reform interest in the new standards lasted exactly as long as it took to put the tests in.
The Common Core IS the tests. It’s all they care about.
“We can look carefully at one sample to examine the health of the entire system– such as testing a drop of water to assess the ocean.”
Umm, no you can’t. There is some pretty faulty logic in that statement, enough so to make it totally ludicrous and risible and therefore draws into question the argument that the author is attempting to make.
The only true way to examine these tests is to have the whole thing open to public scrutiny since we, the taxpayers, are paying for it. Not holding my breath that that will ever happen.
So we need “Anonymous” to hack into the “machine” used/behind it all to open the testing regime up to scrutiny.
This is awesome! Thank you to the teacher who exposed this nonsense. I was forced to administer this very PARCC test to kids with special needs. I have never, in my whole 16 years career as an educator, seen a worse test. Here are some more of my thoughts: http://mskatiesramblings.blogspot.com/2016/04/parcc-is-worst-test-ive-ever-seen.html
I opted my daughter out of 4th grade STAAR (the Texas tests) when I had a good look at some of the released questions from previous tests. She incorrectly answered a practice test question– not because she couldn’t subtract, but because she didn’t know what the word ‘defective’ meant and in this particular question, it was the only indication that one needed to subtract to arrive at the correct answer.
On the reading practice test, there was also a passage by some author I didn’t even read until high school.
I let my students know that the tests are set up for them to fail. It’s all about business by selling more tests, textbooks, remedial materials, and standards development, instead of trying to help students. This year I had to read aloud directions on a math assessment to a 4th grade student, making it the first time I actually paid attention to what was on it. The questions would have been difficult for an advanced student, because they were not even close to being developmentally appropriate. Even the answer choices were not straight forward. It was heartbreaking to hear her remarks and know she knew how to do it, but the answer choices put it in a form unknown to her. I had to watch silently. In spite of that, she did her best, which is all I can ask of any of my students.
This has to stop.