On January 26 I attended the Board of Education meeting and Martin Smith gave a presentation regarding PARCC test results. WW-P performed very well on this test. During the presentation Smith said that not too many changes should be made to the curriculum as this is the first time that the test was taken by the students so basically this is the baseline.
Later in the same presentation the results for geometry were explained and even the students who performed well did not perform as well as “expected.” So the administration went back to the PARCC review commission and asked what was the problem and found out that what WW-P was teaching was not exactly what the “Common Core” said.
Here is the problem: I do not know how many of you viewed the last Republican debate where Marco Rubio asked Chris Christie about the Common Core and Chris Christie said that New Jersey had dropped the Common Core.
So if New Jersey does not have Common Core, and yes, I know PARCC is aligned to the Common Core, why does the WW-P administration need to change the geometry curriculum, buy new books, and get everything aligned to PARCC?
PARCC is not a mandatory test. The legality of this test is still up in the air. NJDOE is being sued for the legality of this test. NJDOE cannot withhold funds from the school as per a law that Chris Christie signed in November, 2015. Many school districts such as Montclair and Eastern High School are sending clear instruction letters to the parents on how to refuse this test. Why can’t we do the same?
Parents, the only way to have this monstrosity of a test that is killing our education disappear is to refuse the PARCC test. Please keep on refusing the test.
Veronica Mehno
West Windsor
