Standards & PARCC

   This week we read about English standards and teachers' reactions to the PARCC testing. Both topics relevant to our future careers as English teachers. The readings on the different standards made me think of past discussions we've had in class about the most effective way to teach standards. How does a teacher effectively balance teaching standards and remembering where their students' are coming from economically and socially? The PARCC reading was interesting as well, I had no idea that this test caused a negative reaction.

   The first set of standards we looked at were the NCTE / IRA Standards for the English Language Arts found on ncte.org. While some of these ideas seemed to be pretty standard (haha) others I didn't realize we learned in high school. Standard 8 for example is an important skill learned in high school that will always be relevant in writing papers, "Students use a variety of technological and information resources to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge" (ncte.org). Essentially any college paper will use this standard to cite information from a website, article, or book.

   The English Language Arts standards for students in grades 9-10 and 11-12 both had overlaps and more specific goals based on the grade level. The standards for grades 9-10 dealt with developing ideas, using specific ideas in writing, and research projects. As I mentioned before, these skills will come in handy come college time. I still remember creating research projects in freshman year. Skills such as finding information you need from the library or an online data base are helpful in many situations. The standards for grades 11-12 dealt with these ideas as well as reading standards. For example, juniors and seniors should have reading skills that allow them to comprehend early works in American literature and understand the reasoning behind Supreme Court cases. These skills not only help in understanding the lesson at hand, but help in discovering the meaning behind most other texts as well.

   The final piece we read was Rhode Island Teachers Respond to PARCC: A White Paper by Janet Johnson and Brittany Richer. One of the authors sounds familiar but I'm not sure why. I've never personally taken the PARCC test, the NECAP was in place while I was in high school. During my service learning for my FNED class however, I saw 10th grade English teacher Jamie. While I didn't see much of the test itself, I did see Jamie's class resting after taking a section of the PARCC exam and heard what they had to say about it. Most students were exhausted and the room was mostly quiet. Jamie didn't teach much, just let her students rest after taking the test which is completely understandable. Some questions, as Jamie informed me, had to do with novels that were above 10th grade reading levels. Jamie was disappointed in this fact, and even more disappointed that she couldn't help her students with the questions on the exam.

   This goes hand in hand with many of the graphs found in A White Paper. Most teachers feel like this exam was not only a waste of time, but actually upset students by making them feel they weren't making any progress in school. This is a strong message to seriously reconsider the format of the PARCC or to create a new test entirely. One of the most important quotes I read from this was, "Teachers want to be listened to, and they are professionals who know what contributes to a positive atmosphere where students feel safe and ready to learn" (Johnson, Richer). If the majority of teachers are saying something is not working, it is clearly time to change it.