Test is not a complete measure of success

You're disappointed with the PARCC results. I have a challenge for you. Play teacher and privately assess your staff, in depth, on their abilities on the job they do at the Daily Herald. Tuck away your assessment somewhere. Ask for participation in the PARCC on-line practice test, math and English literacy.Review and discover what grade they were finding successful results, and then compare with your original assessment of your staff. Please take into consideration that you're working with responsible adults who will take every minute of this assessment seriously, very unlike many children.

Is your staff, "meeting expectations?" Is your staff, "good enough?" Do you feel a sense of "urgency?" Ready to fire anyone now that you know some more information from PARCC about their academic ability/qualifications? Determine if you or PARCC assessed the competency of staff better. Is there more to success in life than a number on a test?

Is a professional assessment, based on a variety of important criteria, from a teacher or a boss, more valid about the success/competency of a person than a computer-based test? Do people/children have a wide range of levels of brilliance in many areas, beyond academics, that are not recognized by a single test?

Teachers, professionals who went through four years of college and beyond, to assess students, are often devastated by the look on the child's face who didn't meet the bar of an academic test. Their effort, determination, excitement for learning destroyed by a number on a test.

Yes, we take seriously our "obligation to the next generation to prepare them well" and we do not rely heavily on one assessment, done on a computer alone, without support from staff, to label a student as a success or a big F for failure. As your editorial stated, "That's just not good enough."

Dee B. Maroney

Schaumburg