By Yara Rivera

One new addition to this school year was the replacement of the HSPA exam for the PARCC assessment. There has definitely been a great deal of talk and worry about the new test, and how PHS students will perform on it. However, it is just another test and it is testing the same types of things that PHS students have been before.

First the PARCC stands for The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. According to the official website for PARCC, they describe themselves as, “ a group of states working together to develop a set of assessments that measure whether students are on track to be successful in college and their careers.” So it seems that rather than focusing on whether students know enough to get out of high school, this test is to see if students have the necessary skills to be successful in college, and their future careers.

There are tests for both mathematics and language arts starting from grades 3 and periodically checking progress through grade 11. These tests were created to provide students with an idea of where they are academically and whether or not they require improvement in certain areas.

Since beginning in 2014, forty-six states and the District of Columbia, voluntarily accepted PARCC testing. These states include ,Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Tennessee. Even the U.S. Virgin Islands is a participating territory.

However, while it seems like a good idea on the official website, many concerned students, parents, and even staff members have mixed feelings of this newly accepted standardized test. This year some states have begun to question their involvement in this new multi-state testing system, and some have even retracted their state involvement, reverting to other tests. Even Governor Christie has recently begun to review whether New Jersey should reconsider this new test.

PHS began PARCC testing on March 16 and ended March 20. Most teachers agreed that while the potential chaos for this testing was a real possibility, they described their experience as “organized.” However, many complained about having “too many unnecessary steps.”

During the first day of PARCC testing, as might be expected for such a radical change in testing procedures, things were pretty hectic. Some students accidentally completed more of the test than they were supposed to. Some classes were faced with chromebooks that were not working, or not charged for the test. However, as the week progressed all the problems were fixed, the rest of the testing days progressed smoothly.

Luckily for us, the PARCC this year was considered a test run. As a team, the students and faculty of PHS worked together to complete this daunting task, the PARCC. Now that the administration knows what worked well and what needs to be improved, next year will be so much smoother that testing will just be a walk in the PARCC.