Commissioner Stewart Officially Drops PARCC Field Tests

According to a memo from Commissioner Pam Stewart released right before Thanksgiving, Florida will not be participating in the field testing for the Common Core aligned Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test this spring.

This is the first real indication that the state may actually leave the PARCC consortium and do its own test.  Until now, the only thing that has happened is that Florida has handed over its fiscal agent (money manager) responsibilities.  Florida is still part of the PARCC consortium and the test is still being considered.  The statement from the commissioner is somewhat encouraging:

"Florida's choice of a statewide assessment will meet the state requirements regarding accessibility to assessments, instructional alignment and school district readiness to administer the assessments. Since there will not be an opportunity to field test all options prior to making a decision, it is best that we not field test one assessment within the state and not the others."
 
What will happen next remains to be seen.  The test chosen must align to the standards, which are under review.  Stewart is reported to have claimed that there is enough flexibility in Common Core to allow add math standards that will qualify students to major in engineering and other hi-tech careers, which, as admitted by principal math architect Jason Zimba, is currently not the case.  However Stewart and  Race to the Top coordinator  Holly Edenfield, along with deputy K-12 chancellor Mary Jane Tappen have all said they don't expect the standards to change very much.   Even if they actually do change the standards enough to deal with the math issues, the incoherent literature curriculum, and the developmentally inappropriate and psychologically manipulative standards, there will be a problem with state autonomy and flexibility because of the copyright issues and the national tests are all still aligned to Common Core.  It is therefore imperative that Florida makes our standards and tests right for Florida students and not be shackled to the federal government, federally funded private groups, and corporate and foundation interests.

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