by Gianna Mehes
Following the announcement that all high school seniors must take and pass the PARCC Exam to graduate, officials declared that a new common sense section would be added to the test. After several rounds of trial testing for the exam’s new section, experts predict graduation rates will plummet 75 percent across the state within the next three years.
The common sense section, which is defined by New Jersey’s Department of Education as “a practical area to judge readiness for real life,” is conducted one-on-one between the test taker and the examiner, wherein the examiner asks situational questions pertaining to sensibleness that require the student to verbally respond with their solutions.
The section consists of three parts, four hours each, with thirty second breaks in between. Students must successfully complete two out of the three sections in order to move on to the final sections of the PARCC.
As of the publication of this article, no one has passed the common sense section during the Performance Based Assessment, issued this past fall. “They’re simple questions,” examiner Martin McGarch said. “I don’t see how kids are failing after the first part. What are we teaching these kids in school that they can’t answer these questions?”
According to senior Lisa Jones, students aren’t prepared for what they’ll see on the test. “I’ve spent thousands of dollars on test-prep classes and nothing has prepared me for that test,” she said after leaving the exam room. “How am I supposed to know what to do if I get a jury summons? All I know is that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.” Immediately after finishing her statement, Jones loss consciousness from exhaustion.
The Department of Education, even after being presented with these alarming results, has refused to reconsider the section. In an open letter to the concerned parties, they stated, “It is essential that this section is kept intact and does not falter in the slightest. It is a firm belief that without common sense, these students will end up becoming delinquents and criminals.”
The letter continued to explain how students who fail will be required to stay in high school until they are able to pass the new section. Hopefully within the coming years, schools will realize that the buildings are not large enough to hold back hundreds of super-seniors for lacking common sense.
