Ortiz, Amy
CA
Gewertz, C.
(2014). Common-core tests loom large for states, school districts. Education Week, 34(3), 1-17.
The 2014-2015
academic year was the deadline for all states to have assessments in place that
reflect curriculum designed according to the common core standards. This has
caused turmoil in the education system as teachers aim to adjust curriculum to
align with standardized assessment. The jury is still out on how accurately
these assessments will measure common core standards. The 2014-2015 school
years is the pilot year for mandated testing and a great deal of research must
be done to gain a clear picture of whether or not the practice is effective. Before
the switch to common core standards, states used their own assessment
practices. There are two main entities that created common core assessments for
states to use: Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for
Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. The PARCC test is said to have
been built from scratch to accommodate the common core, but the reliability of
this statement has yet to be seen.
I’ve observed a great deal of chatter about standardized assessments in
the news. It is a very politically driven issue because it is an initiative
mandated by federal guidelines and enormous amounts of money are going into the
creation of these assessments. The impartiality and reliability of these
assessments has been criticized by many professional educators. It’s a very
complex situation with no easy remedy in sight.
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