Troy LaRaviere is a champion of children and a champion of public education. He is the principal of Blaine Elementary School in Chicago and president of the Chicago principals’ association. He has spoken out strongly against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s anti-public school agenda. He created a four-and-a-half minute video for the Chuy Garcia campaign where he says, “Of the 50 highest-performing schools in Chicago, all 50 are public schools that were here before he [Rahm Emanuel] arrived….Of the 20 lowest-performing schools in Chicago, 13 of them – over half – are turnaround and charter schools, which are cornerstones of the Rahm Emanuel education reform agenda.”
And now, in a letter to the parents of his school, he has advised them that they have his permission to opt out of PARCC testing. He even said that he planned to opt his own son out of PARCC next year when he is in third grade. He calls for all parents in Chicago, in Illinois, and in America to opt out. He definitely belongs on this blog’s honor roll!
The PTA of Blaine sent letters to parents encouraging them to opt out of the tests. Remember that teachers and parents were told by the city superintendent that the schools were not ready for the PARCC test, and that it would be given to only 10% of students. A few days ago, the city caved in to the state and federal government’s demand that it give the test to all students or the state would lose $1.3 billion in funding. It was undoubtedly an empty threat; Mayor Emanuel could have called either his friend Governor Rauner or his friend Arne Duncan and persuaded them to back off but he did not. So with only a few days notice, the children are expected to take a test for which neither they nor their teachers are prepared.
Principal LaRaviere wrote to his parents as follows:
I am writing to make it clear that the Blaine administration fully supports the PTA’s effort to maximize Blaine students’ instructional time. As a result we will respect and honor all parent requests to opt-out their students from the PARCC. Students whose parents opt them out will receive a full day of instruction. Teachers are developing plans that will provide enriched learning experiences for non-testing students during the testing window. I want to clearly state that whether you opt-out or not, Blaine’s administration and teachers will respect and support your wishes for your child…..
Opting out will not affect your child’s promotion and selective enrollment status for Fall 2015. There is also a belief that opting out will affect Blaine’s funding. There is no evidence for this belief. In fact, the test itself is decreasing resources that could have otherwise been targeted for school improvement. Each year, states and school districts spend billions of dollars on testing, while at the same time cutting budgets for instruction and learning. Our PTA believes it is time for parents to say “enough.” For more on the issue of funding, please see the statement released by the parent education advocacy organization, More Than a Score, at the following link:
http://ilraiseyourhand.org/content/response-isbes-misinformation-regarding-parcc-and-opt-out.
For more on the PTA’s opt-out initiative, please see http://blainepta.weebly.com/.
In closing, our PTA’s focus on teaching your children rather than over-testing them is commendable, and we applaud their efforts on behalf of Blaine students.
Very Respectfully,
Troy LaRaviere, Principal
But then, READ THIS!
Since releasing the above letter, I’ve been asked questions like, “Since the PARCC might count for something next year, do you think the kids should just take it this year so they can get used to it?” My response is as follows: If the schools announced that next year they were going expose your children to exhaust fumes for five minutes per day, would you be resigned to that inevitability and submit your child, starting his or her exposure this year so he or she can “get used to it”? That analogy may seem harsh and over-the-top, but it is my lived experience that this massive over-testing has been as toxic to education in Chicago as breathing exhaust fumes would be to a living organism. Over-testing–and the punitive measures that have come with it–has narrowed our curriculum; it has led to massive cheating scandals across the country; it has led to the shutting down of good schools in low-income neighborhoods; and it has led to a reduction in practices that would actually improve schools, like collaboration and increased professional development time.
Over-testing has also given politicians a way to blame public schools for things that are clearly a result of the actions and inactions of the failed politicians themselves. When students in a low-income neighborhood show up on day-one of kindergarten three years behind their counterparts in a high-income community, that is not the result of the failure of public schools; it is the result of failed public policies; it is a result of a political system that has failed to deliver critical human services to the people who need them most. From Rahm Emanuel to most local aldermen, our city’s politicians have failed low-income children from conception to kindergarten, and they use attainment based test scores to chastise public schools for picking up the pieces of their monumental failures.
So no. We don’t need to get used to this. We need to stop this.
My son is in second grade. Next year he will be among thousands of 3rd graders who are scheduled to take the PARCC for the first time. He will not take it. He will not take it in 3rd grade to get used to it by 4th grade; and he will not take it in 4th grade to get used to it by 5th grade.
We do not want our children–or our schools in general–to continue to have to get used to unproven backward education policy ideas like the theory that testing our children is going to somehow magically improve our education system. It’s time to end the PARCC; not just opt-out of it. It’s time to implement real evidence-based strategies for enhancing our education system. We’ve been blindly following the testing theory for 14 years now. The No Child Left Behind law launched this era of testing and accountability in 2001. Remember? The massive testing and accountability the law called for was supposed to lead to 100% of children meeting standards by 2014. Those years have come and gone with no appreciable difference in outcomes for our children. Testing and accountability did not work in the last 14 years and it won’t work in the next 14. It’s time to call a failure, a failure.
Let’s all say it together:
“The theory of testing and accountability has failed our children.”
Opt Out Chicago.
Opt Out Illinois.
Opt Out America.
The powers that be in IL are definitely worried about opt outs and refusals: The Illinois State Board of Education has removed the section on Code 15 from their website. Didn’t work, looking forward to the egg on their face. As you will see in the link, Code 15 is the guidance for how schools are to proceed when kids refuse the test. ISBE is running scared as they have ZERO recourse against parents and kids who opt out or otherwise refuse the CCRAP test. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1_nlHFyqG0IOUJmMlUxeE1OdTQ/view
Does the DOE not follow their own rules? Oh, I can’t believe I even said that here. See #3 especially:
SUBCHAPTER I—GENERAL PROVISIONS
§3401. Congressional findings
The Congress finds that—
(1) education is fundamental to the development of individual citizens and the progress of the Nation;
(2) there is a continuing need to ensure equal access for all Americans to educational opportunities of a high quality, and such educational opportunities should not be denied because of race, creed, color, national origin, or sex;
(3) parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children, and States, localities, and private institutions have the primary responsibility for supporting that parental role;
(4) in our Federal system, the primary public responsibility for education is reserved respectively to the States and the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the States;
The exhaust fume analogy works for me!
They are in panic mode here in CT, too. But have no fear Pelto is here:
http://jonathanpelto.com/2015/03/05/tracing-the-malloy-administrations-deceit-on-opting-out-of-the-common-core-sbac-testing/
Does anyone have any idea how refusals will affect use of scores for evaluations?
For PARCC parents – use this analysis to help make informed decisions:
http://russonreading.blogspot.com/2015/03/parcc-math-test-readability.html
The links to the video didn’t lead to the video. I hope this is the correct video that I found on YouTube
Thanks, LLOYD. WOWZER video. Rahm-bo is well…( fill in the bland).
Some students at my school passed out opt-out forms and also put up some opt-out fliers around the school. As soon as the principal found out, she and the AP were running around like the Keystone Cops, walkie-talkies in hand, ripping down the fliers.
Then, the assistant superintendent came in and “got to the bottom” of such subversive behavior. A few teachers (the usual suspects) were called on the carpet and asked if they knew anything. We denied everything. They also asked us if we knew of any students or adults involved. I was tempted to say that Goody Good and Martha Corey were at the bottom of it.
Then they called in the involved students one by one and told them if they continued, they would be suspended for “disrupting the educational process” which everyone knows can mean anything.
Then, the teachers got a super-intimidating E-mail. It’s a small school so they squashed things pretty quickly. The students who had parents opt them out got called personally by the principal who tried to talk them out of it.
I have been teaching for 20 years and this is a low point.
How these administrators can look in the mirror is beyond me. I can only conclude that it’s ignorance mixed with cowardness. It’s disgusting. They have forgotten why they entered this “profession” in the first place.
Oh- and we have a union (NEA). I can only imagine what would have happened if we had no union pretending to protect us.
Dinosaur English Teacher: thank you for persevering under trying circumstances.
One small point: you assume that educrat enforcers have mirrors. They don’t. Exactly because looking in the mirror at themselves induces nausea and vomiting.
I am not even guessing here because I know the type: they will excuse themselves by saying they were “just following orders.”
I know some will think this is over the top, but when I was growing up this was considered unacceptable. Too many folks were around that had lived and fought in WWII.
Such folks covered the political and philosophical and belief spectrum but for the vast majority “just following orders” was a complete non-starter.
While this may be small consolation, you can at least still keep mirrors in your house.
😎
They probably went looking for Goody Good and Martha Corey!
Sorry! They probably would have gone….
My understanding of how opt outs affect teacher evaluations based on test scores is that if the opt outs push the number of students participating below a certain level then the data that is collected is not good enough to be used in the evaluation system.
That’s a win for everyone involved.
“We’ve been blindly following the testing theory for 14 years now. The No Child Left Behind law launched this era of testing and accountability in 2001. Remember? The massive testing and accountability the law called for was supposed to lead to 100% of children meeting standards by 2014. Those years have come and gone with no appreciable difference in outcomes for our children. Testing and accountability did not work in the last 14 years and it won’t work in the next 14. It’s time to call a failure, a failure.”
Based on that statement wouldn’t you think most principals, superintendents and school board members would be calling for the same actions.
Absolutely PHENOMENAL. SPEAK THE TRUTH. ALL EDUCATORS NEED TO START SPEAKING THE TRUTH.
And then this today in the Orlando Sentinel by staff writer, Beth Kassab,http://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/os-opt-out-tests-beth-kassab-20150304-column.html
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2015 17:02:16 +0000 To: cdudd44@hotmail.com
I hope this brave man doesn’t lose his job! And if he does, I hope a brave school board somewhere else picks him up as a round one draft pick for their schools….
Wow! What a school leader! The worse the crisis, the more people step up to the challenges.
The one and only upside to the criminal insanity that has infected public education in recent years is getting to hear about people like this Principal. Thanks to Diane and other committed bloggers I can count on reading at least once a day if not more about the heroic efforts of those who are fighting this politically-driven and economically-motivated attempt to dismantle public education in the U.S. Everyone must keep fighting, informing people and supporting each other – we cannot allow so many valuable educators and caring people to fall into depression as they (or maybe we I should say because I am a teacher) struggle against this noxious trend.
This is a little off topic but we just had a huge discussion on our tech listserve about what to do with a student who broke their arm recently. Do they take the test, get a scribe or do we create an emergency 504 plan for the student? Well I guess it’s just through the most hoops possible and create an emergency 504 plan….I’d would just opt out the kid if I was their parent!
Awesome, as in “full-of-awe-inspiring-ness”!
Thank you, Principal LaRaviere!
Troy LaRaviere,
If you’re at the NPE conference in April, I’ll try to find you and buy you a beverage of your choice!.
Duane
I’m totally blown away that Troy hasn’t gotten fired yet. How is he able to stand up to these horrible people like he does without any job protections?
What an inspiration! Here’s another great short film about the Chicago schools: https://vimeo.com/120338240
This is what ISBE has told principals how to handle students who ‘Opt Out’ :
Test presentation protocol: Per ISBE (see here), all schools are required to present PARCC testing materials to all eligible students and provide them the opportunity to test, for each unit. Copied below is language sent by ISBE’s Assessment Department in a March 2, 2015 email:
Presentation of the Test
Districts are required to present the test to ever eligible student. The definition of this is as follows:
· For paper-based testing, present the paper booklet to the student at their desk.
· For computer-based testing, present the printed test ticket to the student at their testing device.
· Each individual unit of the test must be presented to the student.
2. Student refuses to test: If the student refuses to engage in the test, Test Administrators may remove the test materials from the student’s testing space (either booklet or test ticket) and may allow the student to engage in a silent, student-guided instructional activity.
3. Allowed activities: Students may engage in personalized learning, silent reading, drawing, writing or other school work. NOTE: If the student remains in the testing environment with other students, this may not include school work in the subject that is currently being tested (i.e. a student cannot do math work while other students are testing on math).
4. Managing large numbers of student refusals: If a school anticipates large numbers of students will refuse to test, they may place these students in a large common area (e.g. cafeteria) during testing time, after following through with presentation of test materials. Students may then engage in silent, self-guided activities.
Amen!! Everyone needs to push back against this toxic contamination of the learning process. We need to stand up for what we know actually support student learning, and we must stand strong with administrators who are willing to take the risk of speaking up and telling the truth! Yes, indeed, the Emperor is out in traffic, buck-naked!
I applaud Mr. LaRivierre’s articulate statement and implore others to demonstrate integrity on behalf of our children’s best interests. If not us, who? If not now, when?
Here’s what they’re saying in Seattle.
________ I have read and understand that:
This refusal will be filed with the student’s permanent record.
Students who do not participate will receive a “zero” score on the assessment and no score report for teachers or families to view.
A zero will negatively impact the school’s overall results in assessments such as Smarter Balanced.
Teachers will not receive results that could otherwise be used as a tool to measure the student’s academic growth in the core academic areas of reading, writing, math, and/or science.
Families will not receive results that will enable them to chart the student’s growth over time.
High school juniors without Smarter Balanced assessment results will not be eligible for the remedial testing waiver offered by state colleges.
Students who do not participate will receive supervision but not instruction during assessment time.
Students who do not receive a score for the high school state assessment in required subjects, or an approved alternative, will not be able to obtain a high school diploma.
We’re not taking the test. I’m phasing out of teaching now — I started in Title I schools, and am ending with charters, both physical and virtual — so I’ve reasonably little fear of reprisals against my teaching license. And keep in mind, my son attends a high-performing school (over 90% proficient), with only 5% or so FRPL. Save Seattle Schools (http://saveseattleschools.blogspot.com/), an excellent local blog, has offered response to each of these mendacious threats, and I believe them.
This enforced compliance is unconscionable for all parties involved.