Value of standardized testing weighed in light of pilot program

LYNN – Students across the commonwealth will pilot a new standardized test starting Monday, but one Lynn mother said enough is enough when it comes to testing.”I’m choosing to have my 9-year-old opt out of the PARCC testing,” said Tracy Anderson.Anderson’s fourth grade son went through two weeks of what she called “heavy prep” for MCAS then a week of MCAS testing and was scheduled to take part in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC.”It’s a lot of pressure, and I think we need to draw the line somewhere,” she said.Fewer than a dozen schools will participate in the piloting of the new computer-based assessment program that could, in part, replace MCAS. Anderson said it bothers her that the students are essentially being used as research for a private company. Neither parents nor the school district or even individual schools or students will learn the results of the testing. The practice exams are solely a trial run for the company, PearsonAccess.Anderson said she wasn’t sure how the school would respond when she sent a letter asking that her son sit out the testing, but it seems they took it in stride.”They didn’t put up a stink,” she said.Superintendent Catherine Latham said she was not surprised by the request.”I don’t have any problem if parents want to opt out,” she said. “They have a right to do that.”Latham said she has her own concerns about over-testing but said the district is participating so it can get a handle on what may become the state’s new standardized testing model. School Committee member Charlie Gallo made a motion during a recent committee meeting asking Latham to form a study committee made up of parents, teachers and possibly a committee member.”That way the district, which wasn’t asked if it wanted to participate, can get something out of this test,” he said. “The scores are going to the state and the vendor, and Lynn is not the vendor and not the state, so it’s not party to the scores.”Gallo said he isn’t against testing per se.”I’m a lawyer, I had to take the bar exam,” he said. “But I think there has to be reasonable amount of testing and I think we’re getting beyond that.”He worries, he said, that students are already being trained to pass a test and not enough is being done to make them-well rounded students, let alone being prepare for the real world.Like Gallo, School Committee member John Ford is not against a test but he believes the Department of Education is asking and demanding too much of teachers and kids with the addition of the PARCC testing. He is particularly concerned because he initially thought the plan was to eventually swap out MCAS testing for PARCC, but that may not be the case. Even if the state adopts the new testing model, Latham said they will still have to deal with MCAS.”PARCC is just ELA (English language arts), so we’ll always have MCAS for the science test,” she said.”Now we’ll basically be teaching to two tests,” Ford said. “We’re not allowing teachers to teach, there is no creativity. It’s not fun to be a teacher anymore.”Ford said the district could have opted out of the pilot testing, but then it runs the risk or repercussions or recourse from the state.”We have to deal with the DOE,” he said. “If you can’t capitulate with them, then you run the risk of getting into trouble.”