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Many issuesplague implementationof PARCC
OnApril 18, Illinois became the
43
rd
state to receive awaiver for
theNoChild Left Behind
(NCLB) Act of 2001. Toput this
inperspective, only 45 states
applied for thewaiver. Illinois’
applicationwas delayed until
certain assurances couldbe
given that teacher and principal
evaluationswould in someway
be tied to student growth.
TheU.S. Department of
Education doesn’t call these
waivers, by theway. Theofficial
terminology is “ESEA flexibility.” What are the feds
being flexiblewith? In short, ISBE nowdoesn’t need
tomonitor AdequateYearlyProgress (AYP) because
Illinois has demonstrated to the federal government
that wehave enough student growth assessments in
place to both raisemeasureable student
achievement and hold teachers andprincipals
accountable. Good thing, too…this year 100percent
of Illinois public school studentswould have had to
meet or exceed ISAT andPSAE test benchmarks or
weall wouldhavebeen cited, risking loss of some
federal funds. Whew!
What did ISBE promise the federal government to
get thiswaiver? Basically three things: 1) fresh and
more rigorous “CommonCore” assessments; 2) new
accountability-based teacher andprincipal evaluation
processes; and3) awider gamut of school
assessments that goes beyond simple normed test
scores (remember 5Essentials?).
Whilewe couldwrite for hours on the
inadvisability of the teacher evaluation scheme and
the school assessments, I’d like to focus on the first
topic: CommonCoreassessments. Illinois has
purchased thePartnership for Assessment of
Readiness for CollegeandCareer (PARCC) tests.
Theplan is topilot it this year and, ready or not, give
it toall of our schoolchildren (through 11
th
grade)
next school year.
Tobe sure, the vastmajority of teachers and
administrators are in favor of CommonCore. Its
standards includewhat we feel shouldbe learned
and itmatches progress to datamaking it easier to
intervenewhen studentsare struggling. Many
superintendents and teachers in Illinois take issue,
however, with the planmoving forward.
Here aremy concerns, shared bymany ofmy
colleagues:
ACTneeds to stay.
Our students, parents and
universities demand that theACT remainas
the
mandated junior test. Colleges anduniversities
don’t recognizePARCCor any other Common
Coremetric for admissions purposes, nor is there
any likelihood that theywill do so in the
foreseeable future. ACT scores, like it or not, are
the ones easily published andmeasured, and it is
howour parents, communitymembers and local
media outletsmeasure school district
performance. Todo awaywithACT as a state-
supportedeffort just can’t happen. While ISBE
has asked for funding to continue togive this test
to all 11
th
-graders, this has not yet been secured.
Lossof instructional time.
A sample fourth
quarter junior calendar was sharedwith the
IllinoisGeneral Assembly that clearly
demonstrates that the ISBE plan to roll out
PARCCwould change our students from learners
to test-takers. Only ninedays of instruction
would remain for those juniors taking a rangeof
AdvancePlacement (AP) exams during this same
time frame.
Technological hurdles remain.
ISBE estimates
that only 60 percent of schools in Illinoiswill be
ready to administer the onlinePARCC
assessment. We know that this is agenerous
estimate. Many of our schools don’t have
enoughof theproperly configured computers
and/or sufficient bandwidth to properly administer
thePARCCexams. Furthermore, wemade it
clear to legislators that having 2.1million school
children all taking the assessments at the same
time on the samewebsitewould result in an
Illinois version of theAffordableCareAct rollout
debacle. Our systems just aren’t ready, and
ISBE’s solution to have students take apaper/
pencil version is not onlymore costly but also
results in lower performance.
Rather than just point out issues and problems,
we alsoare offering some recommendations,
including:
Hold off onPARCCat the secondary level, at
least for one year.
Get our schools technologically ready before this
online test is given across theboard.
Investigate other assessments that arealigned to
theCommonCore.
Confirm state funding for ACT
and
PARCC.
Dr. KevinO’Mara
Superintendent,
ArgoComm 217
