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State Representative Jim Buchy
PARCC Test Gets
an “F” in Western Ohio
We have the best schools in the state and we cannot allow the
bureaucrats in Columbus to reduce our community pride through faulty
testing and flawed report cards. A little over a year ago, we were
celebrating the fine work of our local schools. When the Ohio
Report Cards first came out, each of the 27 schools in Auglaize, Darke,
Mercer and Shelby Counties proved they are the best schools in the
state. This past month new report cards have questioned the
success of our schools, but we must continue taking the same steps that
have always made our schools more successful than others statewide.
When traveling Ohio and spending several days in Columbus each week, it
is frequently commented how lucky we are in western Ohio. To make
it simple—the rest of the state is jealous of the superior academics,
athletics and families we have in western Ohio. We are all very
proud of our success when compared to peers on the state and national
stage. This success, however, has caused bureaucrats and elitists
to target our schools.
Currently, the national trend in education policy has been to promote
weakness and mediocrity-saying that B’s and C’s are successful when we
should be reaching for an A. That is why you hear the term rigor
when bureaucrats and elitists push the common core and PARCC
testing. Instead of encouraging success, they rig the system so
excellence is unattainable and reward those who have failed to meet the
mark. In western Ohio, anything less than the best provides
fodder to work harder for better results. Since our schools have
consistently exceeded expectations, the bureaucrats have rigged the
system to guarantee failure-which is unacceptable.
The results from the 2013-2014 school year showed that five of the top
25 schools in the state were from the 84th House District.
Those five schools achieved a very high performance index score between
109 and 110. This year four of those five schools are no longer
in the top 25. Our schools did not get worse. In the
aggregate the 27 schools in the four counties I represent saw their
performance index drop more than five points even after accounting for
the impact of “opt-outs.” The PARCC test failed to accurately measure
student performance and we have an opportunity to get behind our
schools and encourage further success in the future.
Strong schools and great families are our recipe for success it is
really just that simple. If we choose to believe these faulty
school ratings from Columbus, the fabric of our communities could be
under attack. We should rally behind our school administrators,
teachers and students to encourage them as we enter another testing
season. Speaking of that—we need to reduce testing! Less testing,
more teaching!
I don’t know if the new AIR test will be more effective than PARCC, but
you can’t get much worse. This year, we cannot encourage students
to “opt-out” of the test. It has proven that opting-out just
makes the results haywire and it hurts our communities. Let’s
take the test and box with both gloves on. If the results are
faulty again, then we will know the test just isn’t any good.
The rigor in PARCC testing was easy to find—they were rigged to hurt
our communities and break our spirits. This year, let’s take on
state testing by showing up for the test and prove what strong schools,
communities, and families can achieve.
If you want a better idea of how your school performed this year,
considering the impact of students who opted-out, please review the
adjusted report cards that I have produced for your convenience.
You can see those report cards at tinyurl.com/adjustedreportcards
Please give me your opinion on this topic and others in the news this
month by completing an online survey at tinyurl.com/buchymarch2016
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