A number of the parents who attended the Cherry Hill Board of Education’s curriculum and instruction committee meeting last week had already made up their minds.
They didn’t like the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers standardized assessment, and they didn’t want their children taking it.
However, what parents didn’t know is what their child may do while their classmates take the test.
This question was the center of discussion between school administrators and parents during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Most of the parents are hoping administrators will allow students who refuse to take the test to go into another room or do another activity.
Cherry Hill school administrators have been in contact with other school districts in New Jersey who are allowing students who refuse the test to do an alternate activity. Assistant Superintendent Joe Meloche said there are large obstacles for Cherry Hill to enact a similar procedure.
“I don’t have additional settings or staff to provide an alternative setting,” Meloche said.
During the testing periods, one grade in each school will be testing while the other grades will be in regular class. Meloche displayed this during a presentation of each school’s schedule during the first round of PARCC testing in March. In Cherry Hill’s elementary schools, fifth-grade students will test the week of March 2, fourth grade the week of March 9 and third grade the week of March 16. The middle and high schools follow a similar pattern.
With one grade testing and the rest of the school in class, Meloche said some schools might not have an extra room for students refusing the test.
In terms of staff, the district acknowledged it could hire substitutes through March to supervise non-test taking students in a separate class. Meloche said hiring substitutes for the full month would cost $43,000.
Meloche acknowledged there would be students who refuse the test. He said parents are fully within their rights to tell their children not to take the test.
“We have received contacts from parents who don’t want their child taking the test,” Meloche said.
Right now, the district plans to present the test to students who are in attendance. Meloche said if a student does not want to take the test, they would not be forced to log in or answer any questions. However, non-test taking students would not be allowed to bring any non-test materials into the classroom.
Meloche also mentioned parents are within their right to keep their child out of school for the period PARCC is taking place. Since the test takes place for less than two hours each day, a child who comes in late to avoid sitting in the PARCC classroom would be marked late, but not absent.
Some parents felt the district was encouraging non-test taking students to stay home from school. Nicole Tossa is the parent of a third-grade student at Kingston Elementary and wasn’t satisfied with the district’s plan.
“Being late, being absent, that’s not OK,” she said.
Another parent, Kate Laskowski, also felt having students who don’t want to take PARCC stay home was not fair.
“Asking them to stay home during standardized testing is basically unethical,” she said.
Meloche said the district is not encouraging parents to keep their kids home from school and prefers the students are in class for the full day.
Students refusing to take a standardized test are not new in the district, Meloche said.
“There’s been high school students who have refused to take tests,” Meloche said.
The district has not ruled out providing an alternate setting for students refusing the test. Superintendent Maureen Reusche said the district would continue to contact schools that have changed their procedures for refusing students in the coming weeks. She said if any changes are made, they will be announced prior to Feb. 23.
