PARCC Testing

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, also known as PARCC testing, is taking the nation by storm and is quite the controversial topic. The state of Illinois, as well as 12 other states, has decided to implement this testing into their curriculum as part of the Common Core standards. PARCC testing is supposed to help students ensure that they are on the right path for college and later on in their careers by measuring what they should know at each grade level. As many of you know, Mascoutah High School issued PARCC testing for their freshmen earlier this month. The reviews were somewhat mixed.

Some students raved about the block scheduling while testing occurred; however, others hated the extra long class periods that allowed their teachers to teach multiple lessons in a day. But with the extended time per class, students should be fully capable finishing their work, right? Senior Manny Fontenot agreed to the idea that block scheduling definitely had its pros and cons. “I think it depends on the class,” said Fontenot. “If you are in a fun class that allows you to work on projects, like Tribe Talk, then it could be really cool.” Andrew Benner decided to put his two cents in saying that the block scheduling and overall testing was not the best of ideas. “I just don’t think it was very beneficial,” Andrew said.

How was the actual testing for the freshmen one might ask? Testing included Mathematics and English Language Arts/Literacy for all freshman; except for those advanced freshman in Geometry who lucked out of the math test. The majority of freshmen agreed that the testing seemed too easy. In fact, freshmen thought the practice tests were substantially more difficult than the actual tests. “I liked not having every class every day and the tests weren’t that bad either,” commented freshman, Kassidy Cusick.

In theory, the idea of PARCC testing and the block schedule seemed to really annoy teachers and students, but was were the extended class periods really the problem? Or was it the anxiety of figuring out what lunch you had and looking for your best friends in the lunch line? Either way, Mascoutah will have to tough it out a little longer as we repeat PARCC testing and the block scheduling again sometime in April.