text: Taking the PARCC: Parents test new state exams
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  Patrick and Diane Collins, parents of a sixth-grader, take a practice version of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams at Bloomfield Middle School. (Adam Clark | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
  BLOOMFIELD —Ann Marie Nagy stared at her laptop and silently read the question on her screen.
  Which equation has constant of proportionality equal to 4?
  Nagy, the parent of a seventh-grader at Bloomfield School District, scanned the four multiple choice answers and, again, read the question from a practice Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) math test.
  "I have to see if I can figure out what a constant of proportionality is," Nagy said from her table in Bloomfield Middle School's library.
  Around her, more than 25 other parents gathered on Thursday evening to take practice versions of PARCC, New Jersey's new, computerized state assessments for students in grades 3-11.
  Unlike with prior New Jersey state tests, in which only a few sample questions were released, PARCC has posted online practice tests for both English and math for every grade level. As word about the new tests spreads — including criticism from teachers — parents across the state have been putting the new exams to the test before students take them in March.
  Since December, Take The PARCC events have been held nearly every week in different communities, including Delran, Newark, West Windsor and Montclair. Typically hosted by teachers' unions, the gatherings have drawn hundreds of parents wanting to take the tests and discuss their experience with teachers.
  "That's amazing," said John Shanagher, president of Bloomfield's NJEA teachers' union, which hosted Thursday's event, of the number of parents who turned out. "This is the theoretical stuff that that they tell you is going to happen in college. Only, we're actually doing it."
  The new tests are more rigorous and comprehensive than New Jersey's previous state assessments.
  Proponents say the tests will provide more robust data about student learning, including better information about student's strengths and weaknesses. Beginning next year, the results will include data on how much academic growth a student made from one grade to the next compared to other students with similar academic histories.
  But the exams have generated backlash from some teachers and parents, who say they believe they have been implemented too quickly, the questions and format are too confusing and test preparation is taking up too much instructional time.
  Nagy heard the complaints about PARCC and said she wanted to see the test for herself. She intended to take parts of both the seventh grade reading and the math, keeping in mind her daughter's struggles in both subjects.
  "I just want to see if all the concern is really warranted," she said.
  Across the table, Patrick and Diane Collins, the parents of a Bloomfield sixth-grader, took the practice PARCC language arts test for sixth grade.
  Patrick Collins said he found the questions to be straight forward. But he ran into a few problems with the technology.
  In answering one question, he thought he had correctly identified the conflict in the reading passage as well as three corresponding events that led to a resolution.
  The question required him to click on the correct answers and drag them into sequential order at the bottom of the screen. But some of the answers he clicked on wouldn't seem to move.
  "I'm sure my daughter is better at this that I am," Patrick Collins said.
  Other parents weren't as optimistic.
  Two nights earlier, at a Take The PARCC event held by the Essex County Education Association at Montclair State University, Clifton parent Frank Schiavone took the third-grade math test.
  Schiavone wanted to get an early look at the exam to see whether he wants his second grade daughter to take it next school year. Within the first few questions, third graders are asked to answer two-part questions and multiple-choice questions that ask students to select multiple correct answers.
  One question asks students to find the area of four table tops and identify which two table have the same amount of area. Students are then asked to find the total area of two of those tables pushed together and explain why two different expressions could be used to calculate that area
  "I wanted to see what kind of questions are going to be posed, and already I'm worried," Schiavone said.
  By the end of night, which included nearly an hour of the event organizers expressing their own concerns about PARCC, Schiavone was leaning toward having his daughter follow a growing PARCC "opt out" movement and refuse next year's test.
  Taking the eighth-grade language arts test, Montclair parent Rosanne Guararra was worried, too.
  The questions are easy for a parent, Guararra said, but she knows her daughter struggles to read on the computer and often needs to print out text and highlight it to retain key passages.
  "The jury is out," Guararra said of whether she'll allow her daughter to refuse the test.
  Not everyone who took the test was disturbed by it, though.
  Andy Smith, a Bloomfield parent whose daughter is in sixth grade, went to Thursday's event to take the sixth-grade tests and see why PARCC is "stirring up so much controversy," he said.
  After taking the test and listening to parents and teachers concerns, Smith said the PARCC outcry is overblown. He thinks taking the test will help his daughter prepare for harder tests and other challenges in her life.
  "I thought it was challenging, but I really don't see the controversy," he said.
  The teachers who oppose PARCC would disagree.
  Led by the New Jersey Education Association, teachers are fighting to delay the consequences of PARCC, which will be used as a 10 percent weight in the evaluation of some teachers this year.
  "I hope parents are influenced by us, because that suggests that they value the professional opinion," said Michael Kaminski, president of Delran's teachers union and host of the community's Take the PARCC event.
  But teachers will support parents regardless of their decision, Kaminski said, and they're thrilled that parents are taking an interest in the test.
  "Parents are the backbone for schools," he said. "But often times we don't get the chance to engage with them in some of the deeper discussions like the ones we are having now because of this test."