With all of the parents refusing to let their children take the controversial Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA), the New Hampshire legislature recently passed a law replacing the SBA with the new Common Core aligned SAT.

At that time, I warned that the new SAT was going to be aligned to Common Core and that the appointment of David Coleman to the College board looked more like a political crony pay-off for one of the Common Core’s architects.

While colleges and universities are fleeing from the SAT, New Hampshire schools still can’t provide their students with a quality achievement test.  Instead the New Hampshire Dept. of Ed subject students to psychometric assessments that Nashua teachers have described as “psychological evaluations.”

Parents want to know if their children know basic math, science, grammar, etc. They do not want to subject their children to assessments of their dispositions, values and beliefs.

Recently a student in Utah snapped a picture of a question on one of his standardized tests asking about his views on abortion.  Turning a valid testing system into an assessment scheme has parents across the country refusing standardized testing.

That is unfortunate because a good achievement test can provide parents with information on how well their children are doing academically.

Now it is revealed that there are serious problems with the new SAT. “Manuel Alfaro is the former executive director of assessment design and development at the College Board.

Beginning on May 15, 2016, Alfaro has published a series of posts on Linkedin in an apparent effort to reveal the haphazard construction of the new SAT, released and first administered in March 2016 and again, in June. (He is also posting info on Twitter: @SATinsider.)“

Once again this highlights the failure on the part of Governor Hassan and Commissioner Barry to select a test that students and parents can have confidence in.

Alfaro is now calling for an investigation of “the College Board for making false claims about the redesigned SAT:“https://petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/investigate-college-board-making-false-claims-about-redesigned-sat

There are achievement tests available that test a student’s knowledge on the subject material.  These companies will return that information to the parents so they can see the results.  The information is not gathered so government bureaucrats can data mine information on these kids.  Parents and local taxpayers are supposed to guide their local schools.

New Hampshire has an opportunity this fall to elect a new Governor.  Questions need to be asked by candidates running for that office. Parents need to demand that New Hampshire adopt quality academic standards and achievement tests.

Using the dumbed down Common Core standards and assessments are doing nothing to improve the quality of education our kids need in our public schools.

Parents who want to know how well their children are learning the academics have a few choices.  First check with local home-school parents.  Ask them what they use to test their kids.  Look at the old Iowa Basic Skills Test or the new CLT exam.  If you find your child does not have the necessary academic knowledge, take those results to your local school board members and start demanding better quality programs and curriculum.

The path that Governor Hassan set for New Hampshire’s children is one that needs a complete overhaul.  The candidates for Governor should know this issue well and offer solutions.  Parents need to demand better than this.