N.J. opposition to new standardized test growing

As a new, highly controversial standardized test draws near, the ranks of New Jersey parents opting their children out of the exam are growing, as is the number of school districts scrambling to draft policies on how to deal with the budding revolt.

It's all about PARCC - the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, one of two tests developed with $360 million in federal funds and aligned with the Common Core curriculum standards.

PARCC's proponents say it is a more rigorous test than the New Jersey state tests it is replacing and will help achieve the goal of high school graduates who are career- and college-ready. They say it's designed to provide better data to improve instruction and give a clearer picture of how a student is progressing. It will be an adjustment like all new tests, but it will be worth it, they say.

Beginning in early March it will be administered to third- through 11th-grade New Jersey public school students. A second version will be taken in May.

"It's a challenge that will help us grow," said Michael Gorman, superintendent of the Pemberton schools.

PARCC's critics disagree. They say it's a bad test - grade and developmentally inappropriate, confusing, and calling for computer skills many of its takers won't have.

"The test is measuring things they haven't been taught, that they're not supposed to be able to do yet," said Kathleen Quinn, a Cinnaminson parent and teacher at a Monmouth County high school.

Seeing her own fourth grader's frustration with a sample test, she tried one.

She was angry by Question 5, she said.

PARCC's opponents, which include the New Jersey Education Association, also say the test is too long, too expensive - the state has committed $108 million to administering it over four years, and school districts have spent substantial sums to upgrade technology needed for PARCC, despite additional state aid.

They say it will lead to even more teaching to the test, with exam preparation coming at the expense of other, non-tested but important subjects.

"There is no way my daughter is taking the test," said Hope Furlow, a Cherry Hill mother who is opting her seventh grader out of PARCC.

Increasingly, her sentiments are being echoed around the country, as more people join in what has become a national movement to opt out of standardized tests. Pennsylvania will not administer the PARCC test. But in states like New Jersey that are poised in just a few weeks to start widespread administration of a new test many have misgivings about, the level of awareness and concern is mounting.

"I would say it's exploding," said Susan Cauldwell, an activist with Save Our Schools New Jersey, a pro-public education advocacy group. "I've never seen anything like this."

Over the last four years, the group's Facebook page got about 5,000 likes, Cauldwell said; in the last few weeks as apprehension about PARCC has picked up steam, that grew to nearly 7,900 on Friday.

PARCC also has its supporters. State Education Commissioner David Hespe is among them.

"We understand there will be some apprehension any time there is a change like this. But," Hespe said, "we feel those concerns will be alleviated as parents learn that New Jersey will have, for the first time in decades of statewide assessments, a test that is designed to improve classroom instruction."

And as vocal as the opponents are, far more children will take the test than not.

In the last few weeks, the New Jersey PTA announced it was leading a broad coalition called We Raise NJ whose avowed mission is to provide objective information and help parents during the transition to PARCC. Among the partners are the New Jersey School Boards Association, the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association, the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, the New Jersey Council of County Colleges, the state Chamber of Commerce, and JerseyCAN. Some are openly pro-PARCC. Others are more on the fence but want parents to get the facts.

This Thursday, a Gov. Christie-appointed study commission on student assessments will hold one in a series of public hearings at Camden County College.

In the meantime, standardized-test-restricting bills have been introduced in the Legislature, including one that would prescribe how students could be opted out of the exam and another that would put a moratorium on using the test's results to determine student placement or graduation.

"I think the whole process has really gotten ahead of itself," said Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D., Middlesex), a sponsor of both bills and chair of the Assembly education committee. "My feeling is we've got to try to see what the problems are."

New Jersey isn't the only state with reservations about PARCC. At its height, the PARCC consortium had about two dozen states; now it's down to about half that.

But individual Garden State families who have decided to opt out of the test have faced obstacles.

State law has no provision for students choosing to not sit for the standardized test, as noted in an October memo from Hespe to school districts. He directed district officials to review their own discipline and attendance policies. (A department spokesman said the state has counseled individual district officials, as well.)

As interest in opting out has grown, so has the number of districts with formal policies - currently about 120, up from 90 less than a week ago, according to Save Our Schools' tally.

Still, most of the state's nearly 600 districts don't have formal policies; some parents have said they didn't know how to proceed or what to expect.

And those with policies vary greatly. Some simply state there is no legal right to opt out. Others like Washington Township in Gloucester County have stated New Jersey's policy, but said children won't be penalized if their parents opt them out. The Delran Board of Education went so far as to pass a resolution that it was its responsibility "to meet parent decisions with educationally appropriate responses that are not punitive in nature and do not place children in a social issue debate."

Also inconsistent is what the districts plan to do with non-testing students.

Some districts have proposed "sit and stare" policies - having the students report to the test room and wait until the test is over. Others will let students sit in the room with a book. Still others will have the student go to a separate area to read or work independently or engage in alternative activities.

Jack Fairchild, a Moorestown parent who thinks PARCC takes up too much money and time, was upset at the prospect his fourth- and sixth-grade sons would be subjected to "sit and stare," based on information from the district.

He was relieved when a letter from his superintendent arrived, stating students would be sent to a non-testing room to read or work independently.

Still, Fairchild, a fire protection specialist, is not particularly happy with how his district dealt with the situation, or with the state for its part.

"It hasn't been handled very well, but we're taking care of it," he said. "Maybe we'll take care of it by voting."