Treva Watkins has been pleasantly surprised at how smoothly standardized testing is going this year.
Watkins is a teacher at Siloam Springs Intermediate School.
For the first time, Arkansas students are taking the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers standardized test instead of Benchmark exams. Students in grades three through eight take the tests online sometime between March 9 and April 10. A second string of tests will be given at the end of the school year.
The new test, aligned with Common Core State Standards, has been in the news recently because of a House Bill 1241 sponsored by state Rep. Mark Lowery, R-Maumelle. In its original format the bill would have ended the use of PARCC assessments in Arkansas schools. Instead, it was amended with a provision limiting the Arkansas Department of Education from entering into a contract for longer than a year with PARCC or any other statewide assessment.
The bill has been passed in the Senate and the House of Representatives and has been returned to committee with a recommendation of "do pass."
Watkins and her fellow teacher Lindsey Helm were part of a group of 12 individuals who testified before the Senate education committee as it considered House Bill 1241 on March 18.
Watkins, whose class had just completed PARCC testing, told the committee about the experience.
"I only shared very briefly -- mainly that I had been pleasantly surprised that my students were engaged the entire time of testing. They actually reported to me they felt good about the test and they did not seem as drained as they normally did during previous years of Benchmark testing."
Watkins is not alone in her opinion that PARCC testing went well in Siloam Springs.
"I can just say it hasn't been without challenges, but it's been much better than people anticipated," said Kelly Svebek, district curriculum coordinator.
According to reports from test coordinators, students are also saying PARCC has been a positive experience, she said.
The biggest advantage of PARCC is that it is aligned to current standards, according to Watkins.
"As a teacher, I was extremely frustrated the last two years that my students were being tested (with Benchmark) on standards that we were not teaching with Common Core," Watkins said. "I love the Common Core standards for math and feel like they make so much more sense than the Arkansas Frameworks."
With Common Core, fewer standards are taught but they go much deeper. In comparison, Arkansas Frameworks were "a mile wide and an inch deep," she said.
"There were a lot of framework standards on the Benchmark that we no longer taught in fifth grade, so it just doesn't make sense that they were being assessed on those outdated standards," Watkins said.
One big difference in PARCC testing is that it is administered completely online. Other than a few minor computer glitches, everything went smoothly, both Watkins and Svebek said.
Testing with computers instead of paper and pencil was somewhat intimidating for some teachers, Svebek said. A few students experienced problems logging onto the test but the issues were quickly resolved. Svebek attributed the minor problems to the learning curve of going from paper tests to online assessments. Teachers are reaching the point they are much more comfortable with the test and know how to troubleshoot.
"We're hearing from teachers that it wasn't as scary as some of them thought it might be," she said.
Siloam Springs was one of the Arkansas districts chosen to field test PARCC in 2014. More than 900 students were tested. Teachers who participated in the field test were probably more comfortable with the software, Svebek said, but all teachers did hands-on training administering the test. The school also did extensive infrastructure trials prior to the assessment, she said.
Certain aspects of the tests were much less stressful than Benchmark exams, Watkins said. The duration of the test was shorter and teachers did not have to worry about students accidentally putting an answer in the wrong section of the answer form. There were also fewer secure documents to keep up with, she said.
"The students seemed to adapt to the technology very well overall," Watkins said.
Watkins said she informally surveyed students about how they felt about PARCC versus Benchmark. Several said they preferred Benchmark because it seemed easier and they didn't like looking at the computer screen. Quite a few answered that they preferred PARCC because the test didn't take as long and they like the features available on the computer.
"Overall, their opinions of PARCC were positive," she said.
No test is perfect and high-stakes testing puts a lot of pressure on children and teachers, Watkins said. Some days kids have an off day and the tests aren't always a fair representation of their growth or ability.
"I think that right now PARCC is the best test that we have available, even though it certainly will have its faults and weaknesses," she said. "I don't think we've given it enough of a chance yet to really judge it based on the first year."
General News on 04/01/2015