Why PARCC? New Jersey education commissioner explains

With all of the controversy swirling around the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams, many parents and teachers want to know why New Jersey decided to administer the exams in the first place.

During testimony on March 12 before the Senate Education Committee in Trenton, State Jersey Education Commissioner David Hespe said the new standards are about getting students ready for the real world.

Hespe also gave statistics to bolster the case that the old way wasn't working.

"Quite simply we need to safeguard our children's future. That's what this has always been about," Hespe said. "This is how you prepare for the future, by setting academic standards high."

Students aren't ready for higher education or a good job, according to Hespe, and offered the following date to back his claim:

• The state estimates approximately 50 percent of students getting a high school diploma this year are not academically prepared for college or career;
• The producers of the SAT tests place New Jersey's college readiness figure at 43 percent;
• The producers of the ACT tests said only 40 percent of high school students met college benchmarks in English, math and science;
• 70 percent of students entering New Jersey's community colleges have to pay for remedial classes to master content they should have learned in high school.

"By no means is this about statistics. This is about real kids struggling to make a difference in their world," Hespe said. "That is why New Jersey set forth to ensure that our students leave our high schools prepared for the next phase of their lives in either college or the workforce."

Despite Hespe's lengthy and detailed testimony, some members of committee were not convinced that the PARCC tests are right for the state's students.

"It seems to me that the people that are most important to making this test successful have not bought into it. Not all superintendents have bought into this," said Sen. Jim Beach (D-Cherry Hill).

The chair of the education panel, Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark), said she still has many questions and wants many answers in terms of the new standardized exams. Ruiz wasn't alone. "I'm not convinced that what you're trying to assess through PARCC is really going to be beneficial for the students," said Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Trenton).