In the second year of the New Jersey public schools’ administration of the controversial Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, better known as the PARCC, protests against the standardized exams appear to be on the wane. 

There is anecdotal evidence in Ocean and Monmouth counties that the number of students “opting out” of the standardized tests has dropped considerably from a year ago, when nearly 1 in 4 students did not take the test. 

Where angry, sometimes tearful parents last year filled school board meetings and took to the airwaves to complain of the folly and imposition of PARCC, as the exams are called, there has been much less histrionics this time around. 

When a computer-glitch disrupted the exam a few weeks ago, some anti-PARCC parents took to social media to voice their concern, but the computer problems were quickly fixed and students quietly went back to their test-taking.