The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers…better known as the PARCC test…has been billed by the New Mexico public education department as latest and greatest in public school testing. Officials say the test increases standards and will improve college and career readiness. But some educators say the increased focus on standardized testing might be having the opposite effect.
On entering New Mexico’s colleges and universities 51% of students need to take remedial classes largely in math and English. That’s according to a 2014 report by the Legislative Finance Committee.
That is more than double the national rate of 20% according to the Education Commission on the states.
New Mexico State University associate professor of rhetoric and professional communication Patti Woejahn says she teaches a lot of kids who do well. But she says over the last 16 years she’s been teaching at NMSU the increased focus on standardized testing has meant more students enter college without good writing skills.
“It is more the writing process that I am concerned about. I think the students- especially the students these days are the generation that have been raised entirely on no child left behind and they are so use to being tested. They think that is what you do in school, you do something and then you are done with it.” Woejahn says.
On the PARCC standardized test students have 30 minutes to write about material they are seeing for the first time on the test. Woejahn says the path to proficient writing is far different.
“We always say writing is revising, it is not just putting something on paper and then your done with it, no! Test it with real audience, test it see if it is working, see if you can improve it and revise and then you can become a good writer. Your not a good writer by just sitting and jotting and something down and then turning it in, They are just so use to taking a test, finishing it and then done, boom. we are trying to support the process of learning” Woejahn says.
Timed writing assessments are not unique to the PARCC test. The standardized college entrance exams the ACT and the SAT have similar timed one shot writing assessments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_0kxjnH2CQ&feature=youtu.be
“I think that what we are doing is wiping out the love of language says Barbara Pearlman,
she has been teaching students language arts at Hot Springs High in Truth Consequences for 23 years. Pearlman says teaching to the increasing rigor of the PARCC doesn’t necessarily lead to good English teaching or learning.
“We all know as writers that you never have a finished product in half an hour and these students are being asked to repeatedly write a PARCC test over and over again without a chance to read it, to revise it to brain storm.’ Pearlman says.
KRWG contacted the public education department for comment but they did not respond before this story went to air. In a press release the department stated that the PARCC test allows students to quote “move beyond the limitations of multiple choice answers, give more in-depth answers, and show how they went about developing their answers.”
But Pearlman says it’s difficult for students to demonstrate the skills of critically evaluating information and writing in their own voices on a standardized test. Imparting those skills often means teaching content that deviates from the standards.
“I do journal writing, I do creative writing with my students. Now that is not tested, it is much more informational, much more specifically informational text. But I don’t believe you can do good writing that way unless you have a chance to experiment with who you are, unless you have a chance to tell your stories” Pearlman says.
But Pearlman says it’s becoming harder and harder to teach writing with the increased focus on standardized testing. She refutes the Public Education Department’s claim that the PARCC test is decreasing the time spent testing. Time that could be spent preparing students for the writing assignments many of them will face in college and careers.
“That could be time they are writing, that could be time they are exploring, that could be time they are doing inquiry. That is not happening because we are now taking kids out of the classes to test them” Pearlman says.
Pearlman says she can’t teach English the way she did just five years ago and she’s concerned about the incoming generation of teachers facing strict performance evaluation measures tied to standardized test results. She says those new teachers don’t have experience with a curriculum that can foster quality and proficient writing in students.
“If I was a young teacher, if I didn’t have 23 years of experience, if I wasn’t confident in my teaching, you better believe that I would teach to that test. That is what we are doing – we are creating a group of teachers that do not have room to experiment" Pearlman says.
According to a 2004 College Board Study proficient writing isn’t just essential for careers in the humanities and communications. Two-thirds of salaried workers in large U.S. companies have jobs that require writing.
