OPINION: Testing doesn’t hurt, but PARCC’s stranglehold is yearlong

You get 40 minutes to answer seven questions, every question is essentially identical, technical glitches delay it for hours and nobody takes it seriously. Of course, we’re talking about PARCC. Truly a waste of time with no real impact for the majority of current students, PARCC is just a placeholder test meant to make the school look good.

That’s what it may seem like. But PARCC actually has much more sinister, much less visible effects. Effects like dozens of unnecessary tests and quizzes, a drastic increase in homework and grades collapsing in a heaping pile of frustration and despair.

And it all has to do with time, or lack thereof. Lesson plans and course curricula are tailored to fit throughout the year without time for screw-ups, and when things like snow days pop up, teachers are forced to assign more classwork, homework and tests to students. This is because the deadline for PARCC can’t be changed, and when anything not taught appears on the test and you don’t know it, you’re boned.

Because of PARCC, teachers are forced to cram everything into a short amount of lesson days. A test or quiz always follows within under a week or so. But students barely retain the information since the teaching is so rushed. Now that’s only one class, so multiply that by seven at the most (gym doesn’t count).

And that’s your formula for high stress, low grades and crushed social lives.

“I have had at least five tests and many large projects and it’s been pretty stressful,” sophomore Hannah Skelton said.

“My grades make a U,” junior Chris Duthie said. “They start great, begin to fail, and then summer school panic sets in and I have to get myself together.”

The reason PARCC even exists is because of a 2010 initiative called the Common Core State Standards Initiative. But here’s what’s wrong with “Common” Core: not every student learns the same way. When you test students with a “Common” strategy, people who learn uniquely are going to fall through the cracks. It’s not because they don’t try or because of learning disabilities; their brains just work differently.

Feeding off of Common Core standards, PARCC results label those individuals as failures simply because they don’t conform to irrational government specifications. Basing intelligence off a test score, especially a test that is truly meaningless, doesn’t help anyone. And because the year is spent rushing to teach everything before the test, the mad scramble compromises everyone’s education.

After taking office in January, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy promised to put an end to PARCC. But sources say this process will not be instantaneous. It could take two years or more for West Essex to phase out the test.

Until that day comes, this archaic cycle of educational idiocy will continue to roll.