Across the United States there are teachers, parents, students, and community members initiating protests and rallies in support of the Opt-Out movement against standardized testing in public schools. This past Thursday there was a rally in front of my school to combat new policies being pushed through by Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York that would have more of teacher evaluation tied to state tests. In New Jersey, though, there are new state tests that went into effect recently and already have controversy surrounding them. Opt-Out activists are writing pieces in as many news sources as possible pushing for more students to stray away from these tests. All the while, New Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe is suggesting we "wait and see" what results are garnered from the test.
The big issue at hand from last week, however, is that Pearson, the company who created and administers the PARCC test, has been actively monitoring social media during testing windows - a practice they ostensibly say is to reduce cheating but has been mired in controversy because many view it has a violation of student privacy.
According to their social media guidelines:
The big issue at hand from last week, however, is that Pearson, the company who created and administers the PARCC test, has been actively monitoring social media during testing windows - a practice they ostensibly say is to reduce cheating but has been mired in controversy because many view it has a violation of student privacy.
According to their social media guidelines:
We have an active presence on social media and encourage students to use it too. It's a great way to find information and share ideas, particularly when you’re revising for exams...
Monitoring activity on social media allows us to continuously improve the service we offer...
Sharing ideas with others online can be really beneficial when you’re studying or revising. However, there are limits to the amount of information you can share, and you need to be careful not to break the rules...
This is definitely a tense situation. With modern uses of social media, sharing these kinds of things becomes ubiquitous and hard to stop - it will obvious invalidate a test if a student sees something crucial from the test and then uses that information to benefit his score. That being said, it is also pretty creepy that a multi-billion net-worth company is patrolling social media sites.
To me, this is another reason to stop putting so much emphasis on standardized testing. It becomes much harder to enforce the "standards" that are required to make sure tests are reliable and valid. Instead, focus on spending time teaching in the classroom and make sure our students can think. That way, when they approach new situations, they won't be looking for the multiple choice answers to get them out.
To me, this is another reason to stop putting so much emphasis on standardized testing. It becomes much harder to enforce the "standards" that are required to make sure tests are reliable and valid. Instead, focus on spending time teaching in the classroom and make sure our students can think. That way, when they approach new situations, they won't be looking for the multiple choice answers to get them out.
RSS Feed
