Five Days of Common Core Testing

Nearly 2,000 students at Central Middle and Central Immediate schools are completing five days of tests offered as part of Common Core national standards.  The tests, which last 90 minutes each day, are known as PARCC, short for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.
The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, or BESE, has required that Central and other school systems offer the tests, but it is up to parents to decide whether their child will take the tests.
In Central, 153 students had opted out of the tests, as of Monday. This was eight percent of the students eligible to take the tests in grades 3-8.  Only Calcasieu and Jack-
son parishes had higher opt-out rates.
Central schools Supt. Mike Faulk and other Central school officials pushed hard to encourage participation, partly because BESE said students who did not participate would get a zero, which could lower overall school performance scores. However, on Tuesday, BESE chairman Chas Roemer said that students choosing to opt out would not result in lower letter grades for schools in the Central school system.