Many stories of what is happening in PARCC states:
The way in which you have aggregated all of these comments is really quite compelling as a way of framing your argument. It is pretty clear that your testimony resonated with others.
The part that I would like to focus on, however, is the fact that so many states are coming together with a shared experience. While this shared experience is mostly negative in this regard, I do think it is powerful in that so many people are able to have the same conversation (or similar ones) about the direction we are heading in education.
I do believe that enough folks will rally around many of the words that you (and others) have spoken about their experiences, such that these tests will be rolled back. However, I wonder if we will miss the broader point of what is possible when we all engage in the same conversation. I wonder if we will let this opportunity only be about the things “we don’t want” rather than advocating for the things that we do want.
What if while we are advocating for better use of assessments, we also advocated for more student voice in the classroom? What if while we were asking for less dependence on testing companies, we also asked for a cross-state collaboration space for teachers to share lessons and ideas? What if while we were sharing stories of how the tests were taking valuable instructional time away from kids who need it most, we also shared stories of what great teaching and learning looks like?
Is there room in this testing conversation for those things?
via Surely You Can’t Be Serious: Stories of #PARCC Implementation.
