I'm posting this video today in honor of the failed dress rehearsal that happened in my school today during 4th period. By dress rehearsal, I mean a twenty minute interval during 4th period in which every seventh grader in the school signed onto our PARCC Navigation system at the same time to see if our internet could handle over 200 students all connecting at once. It worked for about a third of the students, but most could not connect. The only thing that my students learned in my class today is that this test is going to create a lot of chaos.
We are two weeks away from the real PARCC assessment and it is taking away instructional time for students and collaboration time for teachers. Administrators instruct us in all things Test, but it is obvious that even they don't like it. What Joshua Katz in his TED Talk "The Toxic Culture of Education" describes is absolutely true. Our school is focusing on a standardized test that is setting our students up for failure. PARCC is creating a toxic culture within our walls and it is a force far beyond the control of everyone. The Test is unfair and a waste of time. My school in particular might not even have the resources to allow every student to take this test at the same time. Teachers expect nothing less than a chaotic week of technical difficulties and stress permeating throughout the building.
Let's take deep breaths together. None of this will matter in a year or two. We'll be onto the next best thing in educational ridiculousness.
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