The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, commonly known as The PARCC, is a standardized test taken in New Jersey, as well as a few other states that previously required you to pass in order to graduate high school.

However, on Monday December 31, 2018, it was ruled not a requirement for Algebra I and 10th grade English Language Arts categories to be taken in order to receive a diploma.

It will not be in effect for 30 days from this date.  

Instead, students will only need to take one exam in 11th grade or eventually not have to take a standardized test at all. Nevertheless, this is a very controversial topic due to the subjects that would need to be tested on. English Language Arts and Algebra I are two subjects that aren’t taught to only 11th graders.  The subjects can be taught as early as in 8th grade, causing them to be easily forgotten by students years later.

Julia Sass Rubin, member of Save Our Schools NJ and associate professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University stated her opinion; “I think for the purposes of what we’re discussing today, as far as using PARCC as a requirement for graduation, that is a terrible idea. It is not designed for that. The New Jersey statute stipulates a basic skills test, and PARCC is clearly not a basic skills test. It just makes no sense to have this requirement for graduation.”

Her statement perfectly sums up one side of the controversy. The process will continue and a permanent decision will soon be made.