NJ high schools see higher PARCC refusals

TRENTON – More than 14 percent of parents of New Jersey's 11th-graders refused to take the PARCC test for their children, according to state figures released Wednesday.

More parents of high schoolers refused their children from the state's newest standardized test, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, then did parents of younger children, according to a letter from Education Commissioner David C. Hespe to state school officials.

Parents of 3.8 percent of third- through sixth-grades refused the PARCC for their children, he said. In grades three to eight, refusal rates were 4.6 percent, he said.

So far, 7 percent of parents of ninth graders refused their children from the test, Hespe said in the letter. The figures are preliminary, and a final tally will be made after the test is administered a second time in late spring. Also, some high schools have finished their first rounds of testing.

McKeon: Why my daugher will take the PARCC test

"We know that all students need to participate in high-quality assessments that can help prepare them for success in school and after graduation," Hespe wrote.

Compared to earlier standardized tests, state Department of Education officials hope PARCC will better measure the alignment of academic expectations with those of colleges and employers, as well as guide classroom instruction and professional development for teachers.

But Bonnie Gabizon of Marlboro, who refused the PARCC for her three children, questioned its value.

"It's become all about testing," she said. "There's no empirical data to show that this is the direction that education should be taking."

The New Jersey Education Association estimated that 50,000 students were refused from taking the test. More than 1.3 million students attend New Jersey public schools, but this year, only students in grades three through 11 took the PARCC.

NJ PARCC refusals top 50,000 and counting

Amy First-Toland, a Marlboro mom who refused the test for her seventh grader, expects the numbers to rise even higher.

"I don't think that number really represents the entire New Jersey refusal (movement)," she said.

First-Toland refused the PARCC because of its reliance on the Common Core State Standards, New Jersey's latest set of educational benchmarks that have come under scrutiny by parents and educators who say they are educationally inappropriate and confusing. She and other parents are also concerned about the length of time devoted to the test, which is nearly two weeks of testing per grade, not counting test preparation time.

"It's being administered twice," First-Toland said. "It's just taken away all this valuable instructional time."

State officials said the test, though lengthy, will help deliver a detailed measure of student skills and areas in need of improvement. Hespe said that overall, the student experience was positive.

"Students said the difficulty of the test questions ranged from challenging to being easier than expected." Hespe said in his letter to administrators. "Students are regularly finishing the assessment in approximately half of the Unit Testing Time."

Earlier this year, the New Jersey Council of Community Colleges placed their support behind the PARCC, and said they would use it in the future in the admissions process. The test will also become a future requirement for high school graduation in New Jersey.

Melissa Tomlinson, one of the lead administrators for NJ BATs, a group critical of PARCC, hopes that does not happen.

"They need to seriously consider not tying the PARCC scores into graduation requirements," she said.

PARCC, money at issue in NJ budget talks

Amanda Oglesby: 732-557-5701; aoglesby@app.com