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By John K. Jonak
Reflection is a significant part of growth. At Westmont Junior High School,
in Westmont, Illinois, my 8th grade Literacy classes took the PARCC test
this past March. My amazing two 8th grade Literacy teachers understood
there was an interesting lesson within the ongoing discussions about PARCC
testing in both school and political forums. Ms. Nancy Bartosz and Ms.
Colleen Walsh recognized that their students, being stakeholders involved in
this testing process, had an important and valuable voice regarding the
PARCC test.
Once students completed the testing, they read and studied an article, PARCC
Testing Pros/Cons [1], – about a Town Hall Meeting on the topic in New
Jersey. Students gave specific feedback about the test content and the test
structure. They also gave suggestions for improving the testing experience.
They reflected upon the content, structure, and offered any suggestions
for improving the PARCC testing experience for students. When prompted to
write this reflection, students understood that their audience was the
school administration and local politicians that make decisions on the
behalf of students. As a believer in each of us having a voice, I shared
these reflections with my Regional Office of Education Superintendent, Dr.
Darlene Ruscitti.
Below are all the student responses, unedited, with the exception of a
reference to the content of one test item.
Please share your general impressions of the test content.
You're able to see what the teacher has taught the students and also how
well the students are learning.
The testing overall was easy but I think the amount of tools listed could’
ve distracted a few students. For example, the highlighting was a tool that
could have distracted us.
Overall, my favorite part was that we had little to no homework, but I don’
t like that we miss two class periods.
I do not like computer tests. I can’t look at a screen for a long period of
time. I would rather have it on paper. Some of the questions didn’t make
any sense.
The math questions were confusing because they asked the questions
differently than what I am used to in class.
I thought some of the test content was out of context. Some of the content
had nothing to do with anything school-related.
I felt like the test was easier than anyone anticipated.
The test overall was easy but I think that the test could have had more
questions to give a better idea of what we have learned so far.
I thought the test was good. The questions made you think about how to
answer the question instead of just guessing.
The test content was something that was a little different but wasn’t hard
to get used to.
I think (in my personal opinion) that it is pretty good, but the ELA needed
some more questions to improve the test.
My general impression of the test is that it is okay. I like that it is only
a couple of questions but they are very time consuming.
My general impressions are that it was fairly difficult. I liked that we got
a lot of time because the multi-step problems for math took long.
The overall first impression of the test was that it was simple, but had
very difficult questions. The question about other questions you answered I
thought was wrong to do, because if you get one wrong you can get all of
them wrong.
My impressions of the test were neither leaning toward pros or cons. At
first, I was quite confused but quickly got used to it since there were many
unusual tools and features.
It was a bit confusing. In general, I don’t like to test on computers.
I thought that the test gave very little questions but you had to put a lot
of evidence in questions which I liked.
I thought the test did test me on stuff I learned in school so it wasn’t
really a surprise but there were some things I had no idea about where I
didn’t know how to answer or start. Also the questions were time consuming
and was a process.
My impressions on the test were not the best. The math questions were worded
badly, and I felt that the difficulty level was too much.
My impressions on the PARCC testing were that the questions were really easy
and that the real world questions had no truth behind them to something
that I would actually be doing in the real world. I really liked that the
tools were right there for you when you need them for the problems.
The test had much difficulty and no one seemed to know everything. We need
to ease into education for the test.
The test had a lot of what we learned this year.
My impression on the test was in the middle. I thought the test was easy at
some time but then the test would jump to an extreme and would be impossible
to finish because the questions took up too much time.
I did not like the PARCC test because it was on the computer which makes
your eyes hurt over time.
It was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. The math was more
difficult than the literacy. Math had difficult equations and major problem
solving.
I think it was easy but there were some questions I didn’t know about.
I thought the test content was different in a good way because it had many
ways of answering. A con that I had was that it had too much content and not
enough time to answer it.
I thought lots of questions were very hard and I did not know how to even
begin some of them.
I thought that some of the test content was hard because I don’t remember
learning some of it.
The test content was laid out very good and organized. I was very helpful
with tools and everything was laid out correctly. The questions were
clearly easy to understand.
I lived in Virginia for a year and I thought it was going to be like the SOL
. Call the senators there and ask them about the way the test was because I
like it.
For Literacy, the test content really covers everything that we have been
through. The test content for math was really difficult and challenging
because we have different math classes and some people, like me, skipped the
Common Core 8th grade math.
To me, it was just another test exactly like every other legitimate graded
test I have taken this.
I thought that the test was hard because some of the questions I don't
remember learning about it.
The test content related to what we learned. It was okay. I would rather
take the test on paper.
The content of the tests was advanced and challenging.
I think that some of the questions were a little difficult to be on one test
with the time allowed, especially for math.
The test content was old and sometimes unrelated/taught.
I personally hated the test. Some things were just too complex.
I hated the test. I thought the questions were terrible. I really thought
that it was stressing.
The test was hard and it didn’t show all our skills – especially for
someone who doesn’t do core math.
The test is okay but I don’t like how it is on the computer.
My general impressions of the content on the test is fairly well. I think
they ask less thoughtful questions on the ELA. We are taught to use long and
thoughtful methods to solve problems and we do not use them so much on the
PARCC.
The test was “okay”. It didn’t seem to test or challenge me, the
questions were mostly time consuming. The answers provided were somewhat
similar and vague.
It was nice to have the passages and questions next to each other so we
could look back in text if needed.
Overall, I thought the test content was not too difficult. There was only
one part of the math test that was truly challenging
I didn’t think the test was that hard, but the test content was harder than
ISAT in my opinion.
The test content especially math was much more difficult than ISAT and it is
unfair for honors math students because we never learned 8th grade common
core so we were given a disadvantage.
The test, in my opinion, is not great. The computer screen gave me an
excruciating headache that deterred from my focus.
The test questions were worded very oddly. Also, they didn’t explain well
if they wanted to show your work OR explain in words. However, I liked how
it was every other day for the subjects.
I thought that PARCC test had its up and downs. There were not many
questions and most were easy but easy is a relative word. I think that
because of the time spent staring at a screen and the fact that technology
is not always is reliable I did not like the test.
The content was pretty average, but a little outdated.
From the beginning of the test I really didn't like that it was online. But
the layout of the test was very cool. It had many types of tools to help you
.
I did not like the way most of the content was worded. In general it was
okay but the math was more challenging than the ELA section.
I didn’t like it at all. There may be less questions but the questions that
are there take about 15 minutes to answer. Its very aggravating. I would
love it if it was like MAP tests short questions but there were more of them
.
I thought that all of the questions were relevant but still challenging. I
had learned about everything that was said in the test.
I thought that the stories made sense with what we were going to type about
but if you didn’t pay attention the questions didn’t really make any sense.
I thought that some of the information on the test was hard to understand
and some of the question didn’t make sense.
I thought that the questions from the PARCC was challenging but I learned
new things on the computer. Some of the questions was confusing but slowly
they made sense.
My general impressions of the test content is it made me think a lot more on
different problems than on the skill over many problems.
Generally, the test was easy but some questions were asked in a strange way.
For example when they asked for the best answer, a lot of the answers would
be similar and help answer the question.
I feel that some questions were testing us on good skills that we will use
in our future, yet some questions tested us on skills we will most likely
not need or use.
Questions made us think, they were good for testing our comprehension skills.
Overall, I think that the parcc test was not as bad as I thought it was
going to be, though it did become harder and more difficult each day. I
thought that the stories were very strange and students might get better
scores on more related stories so then it can connect to their life.
I think that the questions were fairly easy except some of the multiple
choice questions. Some of the things on it I had not learned in a while so
that was not good.
For me personally it was just another test I had to do.
I personally really enjoyed the test. Before I started the test, I expected
all of the passages to be very long and boring but they were surprisingly
very interesting and I really liked them unlike the ones on MAP testing.
The questions were simple because it didn’t learn from your answers (Unlike
the MAP test).
Well I think it is important to learn and feel of taking an important test
because it will help you in the future.
My impression of the test content was fine. Not too bad.
Please share your general impressions of the test structure.
It was not very difficult but at the same time it was not super bad.
It is a waste of money and internet space. Tests are not the only way to see
how well a student is doing in his or her classes.
I think that the test looked fine itself, but the time should be adjustable
to students that want to work at other times.
I loved the structure especially for the literacy portion because I was able
to click and drag things and highlight. The structure was easy and
straightforward not at all confusion or frustrating.
I liked having extended time.
I really don’t like computer tests. In my opinion people don’t do as well
as they could because it is hard to focus on the computer tests.
I thought the test structure was okay but I think the essay typing space
could have been bigger.
I thought the test structure was fine because it was one test a day for five
days and it wasn’t the same subject two days in a row.
The test structure was something I already had last year.
The structure is great, but maybe less white. The white can cause migraine
headaches to certain people which might influence answers.
I thought this was good because it was very clear and well thought out.
Thought the calculator was confusing because it is different from what I am
used to.
The test structure was difficult at first but the more I took PARCC, the
more I became accustomed to it.
The test structure was okay, but the fact that it was on the computer
wrecked it for me, because it made my eyes hurt, and made me not want to
concentrate.
I don’t like the test because I didn’t like the format because it was
confusing.
I liked it, but would rather do it with paper/pencil because not everyone
can type fast and knows where the keys are.
The structure was okay, but confusing at times because they worded it weird.
The reading was hard during the test. It kept giving errors.
I did not like the computer format because it was much simpler to write on
paper than to navigate through questions on a computer.
I like that there were not so many questions but really hard questions
because it actually tested my skill. I also liked the multiple choice.
I thought the structure was difficult to follow because we were not used to
it.
I liked how the test was set up, but I wish the essay box showed more than
just a couple of lines.
I thought that we should have more multiple choice questions rather than big
long essays.
I like the amount of questions. It was nice to only have a few. I also
thought the amount of time was reasonable.
It was similar to the test the SOL (in Virginia) had.
The test structure was a little bit confusing because there were a lot of
tools that were in the test, especially for the Math PARCC test.
I feel that the test structure was convenient in some places, but confusing
in others.
The structure was different. It was hard to navigate and kept flipped to
different questions/passages. There was too much going on.
I thought the structure of the test was really neat and organized.
I didn’t like how in the literacy test, they didn’t put all of the
questions for one story on one page.
The test was structured well. The format was user-friendly and easy.
I personally didn’t understand some things.
The tools were hard to deal with.
The structure was easy and okay but the way the questions were structured
was hard.
I didn’t like all of the typing that we did, there should have been more
multiple choice. That is why I liked the ISAT.
It is fine. I like the toolbar and the stories also. You know how many
questions and how many units you will be tested with.
I thought that the test structure was great. The tools helped very much such
as answer eliminator, flagging, and more.
I did not like that there were questions that had multiple answers and
sometimes it didn’t even tell you how many answers there were. It was very
different and sometimes confusing.
I found it hard to concentrate at times in the media center do to students
being loud in the hallway. It was also hard to type on certain laptops or
chromebooks due to some mouse pads not working well.
I liked how small questions led into a huge question.
The overall structure is pretty bad. It’s hard to see what you’re typing
in the tiny boxes, and the math part whenever I want to use a hyphen it
turns into a minus sign and all of the words before and after it turn into
an “equation”. It’s annoying. Plus the notes are pretty useless since you
can’t carry them over to the next question, and I don’t like how they put
two questions on one page and ask you to answer why you chose “the one
above”.
I didn’t like the protractor, it was hard in the direction I wanted.
I was getting frustrated because the boxes for the long response in literacy
were very tiny, and the things you’ve highlighted don’t move along with
you.
I did like the the structure of the test it was very easy to go from one
part to another part of the test.
I liked having a toolbar and highlighters on there as well because I like to
annotate.
I liked the answer eliminator, I thought it was very helpful.
They could have made the words a lot bigger because they had so much extra
room that we had nothing to do with. Although the test was alot easier to
navigate through with all the new tools. But how some of the text boxes were
setup in odd shapes weren’t very helpful. If they just made them big
scroll boxes, it would have made things alot easier. Instead of all the
funky shapes and sizes.
My first impression of the test is that it may be a lot more challenging
than ISATs. I also thought that we had a good amount of time to finish each
test.
I was expecting the test to be a lot harder than it actually was. Also, I
liked the overall length of the problems.
My general impressions of the test structure is it fine on the way they put
the questions on the right and the text on the left. Also the tools were
helpful too.
The test structure was good. The moving from question to question was pretty
easy.
Everything was so easy. The tools were easy to see clearly.
I thought it was an easy to use structure with a variety of helpful tools.
The tools the test gave us were very helpful and useful.
The structure of the answer boxes didn’t give enough room for us to see our
answer and work without scrolling.
I wish that your highlighting could carry on to the next question for
reference and you could directly annotate parts of the test and not have to
on paper or a separate page. I think that there were too many gadgets on the
test which made it confusing. It was unclear on how many questions you had
to do for that day. But the questions were easy to read.
My general impressions of the test structure is that it isn’t very hard. I
like the lay out but sometimes hard to use. Also, it doesn’t have a lot of
questions and the essay isn’t extremely hard.
I like the setup of the test with the toolbar and how you can flag and go
back to questions.
My general impressions of the test structure was to the point where
everything was located. Also, I noticed when I tried the practice questions
there were more than in the PARCC test that we took.
My general impression was that the test overall was going to be hard or
challenging.
I liked answering the questions in different ways.
Do you have any suggestions for improving the PARCC testing experience for
students?
Make the text boxes bigger
I’m not sure what I want from a test like this so I don't know how to make
a test like this better.
Make the time adjustable because it was a lot.
Make the passages easier to understand.
I think one way to improve it is to have a wider variety of questions
instead of only having 6-10 questions.
I would want to make the calculator more understandable and have more tools
Give more time during math written responses, make the text box bigger, fix
the math written responses, and allow us to use the tab button to indent
paragraphs.
It should be more spaced out instead of all in a row because it is very
stressful.
We should have less typing and more multiple choice questions.
We should have more time reviewing the questions with our eperiod.
Have more time to practice the PARCC test since the format can be difficult.
Shorten the time to 20 minutes or less.
Ease into the education for PARCC because we were all of a sudden rushed
into testing skills and this sort of education.
Can we go back to ISATS? It was easier.
Add things that can kind of make the test more likeable like pictures and/or
videos
More practice.
We should be able to bring snacks and take breaks because I got hungry and
tired.
We should be able to bring snacks during the test.
Give us more time please. Thank you. If you guys want deep, well thought out
work, you should give us more time.
I would suggest making the answer box for math PARCC test easier to navigate
. If we’re showing our work, I think it would be better if we could write
it. You should also the math calculator easier to navigate.
A paper test. My computer spacebar worked poorly so every time I typed a
word, I would have to press the spacebar hard and make sure it worked. Also,
there was a misprint on my computer test on a math problem. I could not
tell if the question had this sign in it (-) or this sign (=). The test
supervisor could not tell either.
One suggestion I have for PARCC test is to keep the notepad intact for all
questions.
I think teachers should give us more practice in class.
It would be a better experience if students could pause halfway through for
a break.
I would suggest to not do it or at least put it on paper.
On paper and don’t do only half a day.
I wouldn’t recommend anything. I thought it was terrible.
Talk to teachers and students to get questions on what they’ve been
learning.
I guess the extended response box could be bigger and allow food and water
in the test.
My only suggestion for improving PARCC is to sleep well, eat well, and
review some topics that maybe need help.
Give us a break if we need one.
The math questions were confusing because they asked the questions
differently than what I am used to in class.
I thought the test was good. The questions made you think about how you did
the question instead of just guessing.
The test content was something that was a little different but wasn’t hard
to get used to.
I think (in my personal opinion) that it is pretty good, but the ELA needed
some more questions to improve the test.
My general impression of the test is that it is okay. I like that it is only
a couple of questions but they are very time consuming.
I think that the writing font should be bigger so it can be read easier also
make it so notes transfer.
My general impressions are that it was fairly difficult. I liked that we got
a lot of time because on multistep problems for math took long.
My impressions of the test were neither leaning toward pros or cons. At
first, I was quite confused but quickly got used to it since there were many
unusual tools and features.
The test was difficult and no one seemed to know everything. We need to ease
into education for the test.
The test had a lot of what we learned this year.
I did not like the PARCC test because it was on the computer which makes
your eyes hurt over time.
Don’t over think it, it was really easy.
It was not as hard as I thought it was going to be. The math was more
difficult than the literacy. Math had difficult equations and major problem
solving.
I think it was easy but there were some questions I didn’t know about.
I thought the test content was different in a good way because it had many
ways of answering. A con that I had was that it had too much content and not
enough time to answer it.
I thought lots of questions were very hard and I did not know how to even
begin some of them.
I thought that some of the test content was hard because I don’t remember
learning some of it.
I lived in Virginia for a year and I thought it was going to be like the SOL
. Call the senators there and ask them about the way the test was because I
like it.
For Literacy, the test content really covers everything that we have been
through. The test content for math was really difficult and challenging
because we have different math classes and some people, like me, skipped the
Common Core 8th grade math.
To me, it was just another test exactly like every other legitimate graded
test I have taken this year.
The test content related to what we learned. It was okay. I would rather
take the test on paper.
The content of the tests were advanced and challenging.
I think that some of the questions were a little difficult to be on one test
with the time allowed, especially for math.
The test content was old and sometimes unrelated/taught.
I personally hated the test. Some things were just too complex.
I hated the test. I thought the questions were terrible. I really thought
that it was stressing.
The test was hard and it didn’t show all our skills – especially for
someone who hasn’t taken the common core math.
The test is okay but I don’t like how it is on the computer.
My general impressions of the content on the test is fairly well. I think
they ask less thoughtful questions on the ELA. We are taught to use long and
thoughtful methods to solve problems and we do not use them so much on the
PARCC.
Perhaps the laptops should be tested more before the test on how the test
would work on the laptops
Maybe they could make the test easier to complete by fixing computers that
have broken keys and maybe take some of the test on paper.
Put the test on paper because computer screens hurt many kids eyes
I think that the tests shouldn’t be so close together, March and May are
very close.
I agree with alot of people on this and I think most of the test should be
on paper. But it is also bad for the environment to take a test on paper. I
also think there should be something when you finish like you can take a
small break (like ISAT) and eat or just talk with your teachers and
classmates.
My suggestions are to lower the difficulty level and put it on paper. Having
it on the computer is bad.
I don't really care much and I think the ISAT were fine, maybe just change
ISATS to a computer version and that’s it.
If the school could budget better chairs and more headphones this would have
been a lot easier. They stressed upon the headphones because we didn’t
have enough of them to go around. These chairs aren’t comfortable
whatsoever.
A suggestion I have for the PARCC test is that putting the test on paper
will make this very easy and it would help a lot of people including me on
reading the
I think that putting the test on paper would make the test a better
experience for me and other students.
Thought that the few question and parts to the questions made it hard to
understand and time manage since you weren’t sure how many parts would be
in each question would have.
I would suggest that you would lessen the parts to each question.
Some suggestions for improving the PARCC testing experience for students is
to not give a essay every time we are about to end, I don’t like it.
Some things that could be improved are enough computers for all students and
more space to work. We should also be able to have snacks during the test.
Make highlight on text and notes on the notepad carry over with each
question.
Make larger boxes for long responses, rather than the small boxes in which
we have to scroll so much to read our whole response.
More functions on the calculator
I think more time should be allotted for each test, especially the math test
in which all questions were extended responses.
Some students barely finished each section of the test, so either have more
time or have breaks because the longer we are sitting at the computer, the
less focused we become, which makes it harder for us to comprehend the
questions.
The test is to lengthy with the extended response
The PARCC testing is confusing
Give us a paper test.
Overall, I thought that the test questions were much harder than the ISAT
questions were much easier than the PARCC questions. There were also
multiple questions on the PARCC test where I was totally confused on and had
no idea on the answer.
I liked how it was easy to flag the questions that I wasn’t sure on and go
back to them later.
To improve I think that teachers should take some sample questions from the
PARCC website so students are more familiar with the content and students
are more prepared for the PARCC test.
Computers kill brain cells.
To improve this test I think you could improve the glitches in it, sometimes
the tools don’t work and it’s delayed when I type. Also put more videos
when we took the test there weren’t any videos, if you add them I think it
will help the testing experience.
I think we should be able (and encouraged) to bring snacks or possibly be
provided with food to nourish our minds and help improve scores. I also
think that they should provide the test with more relatable stories for
students and not have really strange math problems.
The test is really weird when you have to reread the story on a different
screen.
Well it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it messed with my classes.
My impression of the test content was fine. Not too bad.
Have no suggestions at the moment.
Staring at the screen the whole time hurt my eyes.
I did not like staring at the screen so I wish we used paper. I think if we
went over some of the information beforehand we would have had better test
scores.
I think that to help out students we need to stop taking PARCC testing.
There should’ve been breaks throughout the test.
I think they should change the practice test.
Parcc questions were kind of like the old testing but just harder
I would have rather typed everything then having to drag and highlight stuff
I think they should take the math part out and keep the reading part in
because it was just easier to do and I liked it more it kept me thinking and
I could understand what they was asking me.
I think it had a very good format and I felt it was very easy to use.
It was very smooth and easy to understand.
I would change nothing. I think it was well made.
John Jonak is principal of Westmont Junior High School in Westmont, Illinois.
Source URL: http://www.parcconline.org/students-reflect-test-experience
Links:
[1] http://nj1015.com/parcc-a-look-at-the-pros-and-cons-cited-by-advocates-and-critics/\ |
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