Happy 2nd Anniversary!

This post celebrates Education Roundtable’s Second Year Anniversary with Princeton Community TV. Two years ago, the first show spoke of the new assessments that will be heading for New Jersey and the rest of the nation as a result of the Common Core. This year, Education Roundtable celebrates the anniversary with a discussion about New Jersey’s participation in the pilot PARCC tests.

Smarter Balance, another standardized test aligned with the Common Core, and PARCC ask questions in math and English Language Arts that assess for critical thinking. However, the emphasis on the test has caused much concerns throughout the education arena. Educators complain the root of the emphasis on testing stems from Race to the Top, a federal level education program that gives states economic incentive to innovate education.

In 2010, 11 states and Washington, D.C. received funding under the Race to the Top program. An additional seven states
received a total of $200 million in 2011 to put their plans into motion. In states that won Race to the Top grants and in
states that did not, state leaders and educators embraced the challenge to bring forward their best ideas to improve education, with determination, courage and vision.

However, the Common Core created a national educational goal that allows for highly mobile families to receive relative consistency in education standards. Furthermore, for the first time, a national dialogue on what this nation needs and wants in education commenced. Educators, parents and students across the United States are blogging, commenting, writing and speaking about what is important to them. Education Roundtable and Princeton Community TV are proud to be a vehicle for the presentation of educational ideas from the standpoint of an independent voice.

This Wednesday at 7pm, please watch Brad Currie, New Jersey blogger and middle school Vice Principal of Chester School District, their participation in the pilot PARCC assessment.