Let's talk about PARCC field testing

Last week, Commissioner Chester announced (or sent out in his weekly letter, which isn't exactly the same thing) that two-thirds of the schools in the state would be "selected" to field test questions for Pearson this coming spring for their new PARCC test.
Worcester has been notified that some of our schools have been selected to take part.
I have--and I know it isn't just me--a number of questions regarding this:

• What sort of time is this field testing going to take away from our students' education?
• How much staff time will be involved?
• How is it that Pearson, a multi-billion dollar company, needs the (one assumes) free services of our students and staff to field test their questions?
• How is it that the state justifies this use of public staff and student time?

I've put an item on the Worcester School Committee agenda for September 5, asking about the amount of time this involves; I'm going to ask that the report come back for our next meeting on September 19, so that we can hash out exactly what this means for Worcester and what decision we should make.

As always, please weigh in if you have a thought on this issue.