I’m Karuna Skariah, a National Board Certified Teacher and an advocate for Digital/Literacy for my students of Prince George’s County Public Schools.  I embrace Common Core because I believe my students need critical and algebraic thinking skills for the 21st century. I embrace the PARCC Online Assessment but implementation looks different in the trenches of the testing room. Allow me to show you my world of teaching Common Core, and as I do so, please keep in mind the skills required to respond to these questions.

Algebraic thinking for a 1st grader looks like this: 1+3=5-1 True or False? Give reasons for your answer.  Choose a nonfiction book and write an Acrostic poem about the topic.  An example for a 3rd grader on the PARCC could be: Using the tools on the screen, cut/paste, drag and drop, and highlight supporting evidence, or calculate 20x30 and highlight the number on the tenth place.

Consider the skills required to answer these simple questions: For both math and Language Arts, students should be able to read and make sense of problems, reason abstractly, construct viable arguments, and persevere in solving them. For the PARCC, they would need working computers and extensive practice on technology tools. Keyboarding and typing skills with such speed and accuracy, it becomes second nature. Testing energy should be spent on reading, analyzing text, understanding question prompts, and formulating a response that supports their argument.  However, the reality is--two index fingers, punching keys in slow motion, eyes laboriously scanning the keyboard and searching for screen tools, consequently, squandering precious testing time, only to collapse in tears and frustration.

The reading, technology, library/media and test teachers make up the infrastructure that my students need, to be successful in this Digital Age. I am their first point of contact—I should know.  Ironically, the exiting Board cut those very positions in 2011, the year Common Core was initiated. PARCC has gone live in 2015--and yet, no reading, technology or testing teacher. The in-coming Board and CEO never thought to assess the gaps left by such arbitrary decisions. It is deplorable that the County has knowingly set students up for failure. WHY? How can PARCC measure student learning when my students cannot type what they know? How can PARCC track student achievement, when my students don't have the keyboarding skills to show what they have achieved? You had ample notice to plan for the requirements of the PARCC Online Assessment in this Digital Age. If preparing students to be College and Career Ready is a State Mandate, the infrastructure that allows this to happen should be County-funded and Non-Negotiable. Literacy needs to happen now, not when they reach high school or college.  Digital Literacy begins with Reading fluency and Technology training at Kindergarten level. It is still not too late to fill up those sink-holes. The students and I request you to re-assess student needs and re-adjust budget allocation for 2015/16. We request you to re-instate, fully-fund and lock-in the reading, technology, media and test teachers who are so vital to the success of EVERY student in Prince George’s County Public Schools.

Thank you.