PARCC Is Gone, SATs Are In!

By Maddison Fazio

           Get ready for a few days of SAT testing, 360 students! With Rhode Island eliminating the PARCC exam, all students will now have access to free PSAT/SAT exams this year and moving forward. On the subject of this transition, principal Kerry Tuttlebee said; “Our big goal remains the same no matter what, which is how to get you ready for college or a career or both.”

          Despite the state’s plan of using the PARCC assessment long term, it was very short-lived and only provided us with three years of data. Whether or not three short years worth of data is substantial enough to determine Rhode Island students’ growth is rather controversial; however, no matter your stance, the findings were far from impressive.”

On the math side, only 33 percent of students were proficient”, and “in English language arts, 40 percent were proficient.” according to the Providence Journal, Providence’s school system is no stranger to change, so whether the SAT will stick around or share the same fate as PARCC is definitely something to monitor moving forward..

“It’s absolutely possible that we stick with this and this is it for a while, but I don’t know, and if it’s not the right assessment and we need to include others it’s important to make those changes.” says Tuttlebee.

           But how does this “short-termness” affect students’ education? “Knowing or believing that it’s going to be short-term doesn’t make people put in the appropriate amount of time into making sure that it’s done well, and therefore the only people that lose are the students,” stated Dulari Tahbildar, Director of Student Support at 360 High School.

The SAT is right around the corner for 360 students as testing will begin on April 5th, 2018. With this in mind, it’s important to consider what the transition will mean for our school in particular.” I think the seriousness is there and we have to make sure we’re sort of hyping it in a positive way and really helping kids prepare for it both in school and outside of school with Khan Academy, SAT prep, and all that good stuff.” says Kerry.