PARCC Testing and Standards

The teacher reactions to the PARCC testing did not surprise me at all.  For a few semesters now, I have been working with an eighth grade teacher at Times2 Academy in Providence.  While reading this paper, all I could think was that this particular teacher could have been any one of the teachers who responded to the survey.  Almost every time I see her, the conversation goes back to the negative effects of the PARCC test in her classroom.  When we debrief my experience in the class that day, she always express how her students really need to spend more time working with specific elements of the curriculum, but the PARCC preparation and testing itself just does not allow for that.  I found it really interesting to read what other teachers had to say about the tests, especially since I have heard these same types of statements firsthand.  What really struck me about this piece was the recurring sentiments from teachers who were concerned that they would not be able to reverse the damage done to student's confidence levels after taking the PARCC tests.  I particularly liked the line "this negative academic experience cannot be separated from the students' self-perceptions."  I have not read a lot of literature on the PARCC tests, I have mostly just heard things from professors and teachers, so going into this article, I had some of my own ideas about how I might handle standardized testing in my own classroom.  I thought that it might be effective for me to tell my students how little the tests mean and how they shouldn't let them deplete their self-esteem in the classroom or have another similar reassuring talk with my class.  However, the paper makes it clear that some students, particularly those with special needs or ELL's, already have little to no confidence in their academic abilities, and being presented with a high stakes test where they cannot even understand the questions, only further damages their self-images.  They will not be able to forget or ignore this negative experience.
In regards to the standards, I looked at the NCTE standards in particular, and saw that their purposes do not align with the teachers' feelings towards the PARCC tests and their outcomes at all.  The purpose of most of the standards seem to be to create lifelong learners out of our students, but what the tests are doing are making the classroom a place filled with anxiety, fear, and sadness.  In that type of environment, how can we as teachers possibly make our students lifelong learners?  In my opinion, that would only make students want to get out of the classroom as soon as possible.  In particular, I thought the standard about participating in literacy communities was especially contrasted by the outcomes of the PARCC tests.  The tests have made the creators of PARCC and the 'higher-ups' in education, into an exclusive community where students and teachers are not allowed to participate.  They have no say in the tests' content, preparation, or anything relating to it, and are forced to deal with its negative effects.