Parents and teachers take standardized practice test to better understand what students are facing

From KOB-TV.com - By: Stephanie Claytor, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - There is a lot of controversy surrounding standardized tests that all New Mexico public school kids take. On Saturday, some parents and teachers gathered at the Los Duranes Community Center in Albuquerque to try the practice tests. They wanted to get a firsthand look at what our students are facing.
      This year, New Mexican students in grades third through eleventh, will have to take the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers or PARCC. They’ll have to take it in March and April. This test is different from previous standardized tests because it’s digital and only offered in English.
      The parents and teachers at the meeting found the exam troubling. "I don't think that I could pass that test, despite the fact that I have taught for two decades,” said David Wilson, a bilingual interventionist for Albuquerque Public Schools.
      In many cases, teachers’ evaluations will be heavily based off of their students' scores. Many of the teachers who took the practice tests said they've been discouraged from talking to parents about the exams.
      On the PARCC New Mexico website, it says "The PARCC assessment measures real world skills that colleges value, like critical thinking and problem solving. New Mexico's college and universities will use those assessments as one of the indicators of a student's readiness for entry-level college courses." More
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