When I saw this article, I too, who also had and still have an imagination, imagined myself taking this PARCC test. At ten, I was just beginning to overcome some learning challenges as a child. I can imagine such a test being used to prevent me from getting a high school diploma and becoming a very successful college student (which I was). I can also imagine instead of being retired with dignity after a 36 year career, I would have to work , maybe 50 to 60 hours a week, into my old age in some service job just to make ends meet. I would be working in a job that I would hate and despise because of the limited career options I would have had as a high school dropout.
Dear Members of Governor Christie’s PARCC Task Force:
I was one of those kids who always performed well on standardized tests. As a result of my scores, I was placed in gifted and talented programs, tracked into the honors and AP tracks (with their added boosts of inflated GPAs), and ultimately accepted to a highly selective liberal arts college. I wasn’t a particularly conscientious student, and I brought all sorts of hangups to my classwork (Carol Dweck is my hero, as I was definitely one of those kids who often didn’t complete assignments at all out of what I now believe was fear that I wouldn’t measure up to my “smart” reputation). But standardized tests saved me, and gave me a chance to “prove” my worth. You’d think I’d be the biggest cheerleader out there for our new, next-generation standardized tests. After all, standardized tests enabled me to…
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The Public Educator 