Laurie Udesky/EdSource Today

Students taking Smarter Balanced practice tests at Bayshore Elementary School in Daly Metropolis.

Laurie Udesky/EdSource Today

Students taking Smarter Balanced practice tests at Bayshore Elementary School in Daly City.

California schools are testing more than 3 million students this spring to measure out their understanding of math and English language Arts tied to the new Common Cadre State Standards. Withal, the majority of California'south public school parents know zippo nearly the new tests their children volition accept, according to a survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.

50-five percent of parents said they knew naught at all about the tests, known as the Smarter Balanced assessments, according to survey results released Wed.

The survey too indicated that about (62 percent) California public school parents had received inadequate or no information about the Common Core State Standards, although almost the aforementioned number (57 percent) said they favored the standards.

The survey queried more 1,700 California adults from Apr 3 to 13. Results from public school parents were reported separately.

 Thursdaye California Section of Education said that it and school districts are "working hard" to educate parents about the new tests, drawn up past the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.

"Only as with any new endeavor, information technology takes fourth dimension to get the word out," said a statement from the section.

Less than ane-tertiary of the 3 million students in grades iii through eight and eleven who will take the test this year take completed the new online Smarter Balanced assessments that are tied to the Mutual Core, the statement said. The tests are being rolled out on a staggered basis throughout the state.

"Communication with parents about the new cess system and efforts to improve pupil readiness for college and careers is a work in progress," said Michael Kirst, president of the California State Board of Education. "It will be an even college priority as scores from this new assessment are released later this year."

"Parents need to know the scores volition reverberate student progress on standards that are new and are only ane of many indicators of a student'south progress in school," Kirst added.

"Every bit with any new effort, information technology takes time to become the word out," said a statement from the California Department of Education.

The survey's results rang true for i parent.

"I, and other parents, have been request our principal for the last few months for information well-nigh the new testing," said Nancy Hsieh, whose children attend school in the San Mateo-Foster Metropolis School District, in an electronic mail.

The school has scheduled a session for side by side week, Hsieh said."I'm curious to see how many people attend."

I communications expertsaid spotty attendance at events informing parents nearly the new tests may be one reason that many are unaware of them. Several districts have held parents' nights to inform families about the Mutual Core.

"I've been to several of these parents' nights and attendance is relatively depression," said Neha Gohil, a senior media fellow at the nonprofit Silicon Valley Customs Foundation, which supports education and customs projects. Gohil directs a Common Core project for which she's developed media tool kits for school districts around the San Francisco Bay Area.

All the same, she finds the lack of sensation about the tests"surprising," given the amount of information beingness sent home to parents and the coverage in the media. According to the survey, 75 percent of public school parents said they had received either inadequate or no data from schools nigh the Common Cadre State Standards, which have been adopted by California and 42 other states.

Parents responding to the survey also appear to exist uninformed about the widely held expectation that the state's overall examination scores will likely be lower than in the by. More than 70 pct of public school parents said that they believed the scores will probable be the same or college than previous years' scores on the completely unlike California Standards Tests that students had been taking for over a decade.

Students' abilities have not changed, said David Plank, the executive director Policy Analysis for California Education, a research center based at Stanford University. Instead,"the bar has been raised" on what'southward expected of students on the new Smarter Balanced assessments.The tests require students to explain how they arrived at their answers and apply critical thinking skills – a big modify from what was required on the state'southward previous newspaper-based, multiple-choice tests.

"There will very probable be a number of students who won't become over the new bar that did become over the old bar," Plank said.

The survey too asked the state'due south public school parents to counterbalance in on whether they thought standardized tests in general accurately reflected students' growth and capabilities. The majority of respondents – 62 percentage – said they were "very" or "somewhat" confident that standardized tests are a skilful measure, while 36 percent had little or no conviction.

But the survey, which has a margin of fault of plus or minus 3.7 per centum points, also revealed that California public school parents are divided on whether at that place is also much testing. 20 percent of parents said there is too much testing, while 45 pct said there's the right amount and 31 pct said there isn't plenty.

Amidst other poll results, 57 percent of parents said preparing students for higher is the virtually of import goal of the K-12 school system, while 61 pct said schools were doing a good or excellent chore of preparing students for jobs in the workforce.

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