Student Opinion: Are we ready for PARCC?
“[PARCC is] designed to measure the learning that is supposed to be taking place,” said Dr. Stephen Lucas, chairman and graduate coordinator for the secondary education and foundations department in the College of Education and Professional Studies at Eastern Illinois University.
PARCC is split in two sections, performance based and standard multiple choice. The performance based portion will require students to show how they arrive at their answers. Performance based testing allows students to demonstrate what they have learned. Standard multiple choice testing, however, only allows students to pick an answer, which is rigidly right or wrong.
The technological aspect of the test is designed to make returning results much quicker, allowing for schools to adjust their curriculum based on students’ scores and improve learning for students on an individual basis.
Each school needs approximately one computer, laptop or tablet for every two students, according to Lucas. This allows every student to complete the eight to nine and a half hour test within the allotted three week testing period. The financial burden of obtaining this technology falls completely on individual schools.
“The main thing right now is that [schools] are stressed out about the technology of it,” said Lucas.
Many schools are concerned with the extent of the technology being used for the assessment. The test will be taken using PARCC technology except in extenuating circumstances, such as special needs students. Rural schools, especially, may struggle to provide enough testing platforms and Internet bandwidth for their students, according to Lucas.
Urbana High School has approximately 250 computers it can use for testing. This gives the school a student to testing device ratio of just less than one device to three students. Technology coordinator James Planey thinks the school will be able to manage with the devices it has.
Urbana plans to have a segmented testing schedule, so the labs are not books during the same class periods every day. In addition, Planey hopes to be able to make the mobile computers still available to teachers who need them.
“I think it’s a double edged sword,” Planey said, it forces schools to recognize the importance of technology, but it rushes them into the decision of which devices they will be purchasing. They may simply purchase the devices that qualify for the exam, instead of the devices best suited to their student’s learning.
Curriculum will need to be altered slightly, to teach students how to adapt their pen and paper classroom skills or the computer. One example of this will be teaching students how to use a formula editor used by PARCC testing in math classes. Other teachers may need to adjust their curriculum to include test prep for the Common Core based test.
Overall, schools still have a lot to prepare for with PARCC, but without help from the PARCC committee acquiring the required technology some schools may struggle, causing classes to come to a halt.
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