Christie: “I’m not gonna kill PARCC before we even take PARCC”

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Despite moderating his rhetoric in support of the Common Core curriculum standards, Save Jerseyans, Governor Chris Christie defiantly refused to condemn controversial PARCC testing at Wednesday’s town hall appearance in Fair Lawn.

“We are going to have to test,” Christie declared, frustration apparent in his tone. “We need to know where your children stand,” Mr. Christie said during a town hall meeting here.”

Governor Christie’s PARCC week plea to parents, arguing against “opt outs,” is falling on deaf ears in many quarters.

Fair Lawn, the site of today’s town hall, does have an opt out policy. Statewide, 228 New Jersey districts and 2 regional high schools have PARCC “refusal policies.” In the Governor’s hometown of Livingston, 1,100 of 4,000 test takers’ parents in opted out. Major technical problems are even delaying the testing is some communities for students whose parents didn’t object to their participation.

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8390 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

9 Comments

  1. Christie does not seem to understand, or maybe he does but isn’t saying,that the reason parents are refusing the PARCC test is because we are refusing the Common Core curriculum and the intrusive data mining that goes with it. It is not about testing or the test being to hard. That is what they would like everyone to think is the reason. The PARCC test is the keeper of the gate to CCore. It is so they can determine if the teachers are teaching it, and have not strayed. We are refusing as to deny them the data. Get rid of the test and then we might be able to get rid of the curriculum. Watch Rotten to the Core byDr Duke Pesta. and Stop Common Core parts 1-5. This is also not a partisan issue. Many Democrats hate it just as much.

  2. What do they do with results? Tests given for the sake of giving add nothing to the learning process!

  3. The Governor is wrong, period. His assertion of needing to take the test to see how it works is reminiscent of Nancy Pelosi saying we need to pass Obamacare to see what’s in it. Keep government as far away from education as possible, they have damaged it enough.

  4. Reports are coming in that in addition to high refusal rates at many high schools, high school students are intentionally tanking the PARCC and making their essays about how PARCC sucks. Faith in the future of humanity restored when our high schoolers can see through the fraud that is Common Core and the PARCC.

  5. To clarify a couple of things….1) CC are basically the standards (in ohter words what students are expected to know at each grade level.) Curriculum is decided upon by local districts….they do that by choosing textbooks, teachers developing lesson plans etc. 2) Data has always been taken from standardized testing. With PARCC, the idea is to have better data that addresses specific areas where studnets need extra help and on the flipside identifies areas where they are doing better than the norm. 3) As for Christie, he can say what he wants but I just wish he would be consistent (and at times more accurate) since he seems to say one thing in NJ and another thing when he is traveling around the country telling audiences what they want to hear.

  6. Keep government out of all phases of education. Dump the Federal Department of Education or cut its wings back so it has nothing to do with redistribution of tax money, most of which is spent on the bureaucracy itself. this is bipartisan and, Republicans and Conservatives do not like it either.

  7. The curriculum that is “decided ” by local districts is drawn from the Common Core, which is in itself ,horrific in many ways. The PARCC aligns with it . So teachers have to teach to the test. Where do you think the questions come from? Next to come is the worst part of the curriculum which is the social studies and science. They wanted to get math and english in first because when parents get a load of the propaganda being pushed in these subjects it will be harder to get rid of CC. The test and apparatus will cement it in. We are not against standarized tests. This test is on a computer and very intrusive personal info is gathered as well. They want to create personal profiles on students that will follow them from K to career. How can anyone think this is a good idea? Right now teachers are able to choose how much or what parts of the Common Core to teach but once it is completely adopted that will end. This is a Federal takeover nationalizing education. No more local control,parental input, or educator imput. And charter schools are just as bad. They use taxpayer money without taxpayer input.

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