NJ Education Report

Today  Leslie Brody at the Wall St. Journal reports on the first day of PARCC [correction: NYS students don’t take PARCC, but annual standardized state tests that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards] testing in New York State and examines disparate rates of opt-outs.

• At Brooklyn New School in Carroll Gardens, 95% of children opted-out of PARCC tests. (The median family income in Carroll Gardens is $89,230; 8.5% of households live below the poverty level.)

• At P.S. 171 in East Harlem, one student opted out. (The median family income in East Harlem is $34,379; 33.4% of households live below the poverty level.)

Hence, a much-noted and disturbing consequence of the opt-out “movement”: poor parents opt their kids in, and rich parents opt their kids out, undermining necessary data that provides needy kids with extra resources and support.

Also, from the same article, a view of Common Core-aligned testing from participating children:

Dakota Swart, a fifth-grader at P.S. 234 in Tribeca, said she approached her exam with confidence after weeks of test preparation and a performance-boosting plate of waffles.
“I’ve been doing this since third grade and we’ve been preparing for a while so I was comfortable with it,” she said.
Courtney Simon, a fourth-grader, said she was scared beforehand because last year she couldn’t complete it.
“This time, I finished 30 minutes early,” she announced proudly.
“Thirty minutes?” asked her mom, Ann Simon.
“I went through and checked it three times,” Courtney assured her.