Leadership Matters May 2014 working doc

Many issuesplague implementationof PARCC OnApril 18, Illinois became the 43 rd state to receive awaiver for theNoChild Left Behind  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

(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

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.

Dr. KevinO’Mara Superintendent, ArgoComm 217

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:

 Confirm state funding for ACT and PARCC.

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