Here is an excellent analysis of what is behind the Opt Out movement. Last year, 50,000-60,000 students opted out in Néw York. The figure will be more than double that this year.
Parents are reacting against the overuse and misuse of tests. They are reacting against Governor Cuomo’s harsh and punitive education legislation.
In a democratic society, parents can’t be pushed around by public officials who are more interested in politics than in children. It makes parents angry.
My favorite quote:
“The most dangerous place on Earth is between a mother and her child. Cuomo has crossed the line,” declares GiGi Guiliano of East Islip, a mother of three who will refuse the test. “We want our classrooms back. We want our teachers to be able to teach again. I want my kids to enjoy the love of learning, not how to fill in bubbles. I want them to be lifelong learners.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
YES YESYES!!!! They woke a sleeping giant.
Overheard a Success Academy teacher telling her students how disappointed she was in them this afternoon, loudly in the hallway. She continued by saying that if they did not get 4’s tomorrow and Thursday, they would not pass the test. Real nice! What I would like to know is, how did she know how they did on the test? AND, why lie to her students? Can’t believe this goes on. Regards, Mindy As long as there’s struggle, there’s hopeAs long as there’s life, there is fighting As long as we fight, we are standingAs long as we are standing, we won’t give up!-On Lache Rien
“On Lâche Rien”
That will be projected on the wall today as the students come into class. (if they don’t cut me off because of “band width” limitations)
Great tune in the folk fashion of protest!
We Won’t Give Up!
YEAH! I’m so proud of the LI parents! I bet the numbers are bigger throughout NY. This is a great day for NY! I hope the larger opt out numbers makes a difference! How large does it have to be to have our elected officials actually listen and respect us?
Biggest and Buggiest, hopefully! (Dear Diane’s assistant, please assist our favorite education advocate on how to edit her posts)
Well, the opt-out numbers are sure to bug someone or someones!
Steve Magruder,
Diane Ravitch’s assistant is named Diane Ravitch, and you can reach her at Diane Ravitch’s blog.
Tell him, Diane.
Interestingly enough, Diane Ravitch’s assistant works for free, and she also makes an excellent thinker and advocate.
Together, Diane Ravitch and her personal assistant, Diane Ravitch, make a dynamic and powerful team.
I know they have transformed me, and I’m generally not so transformable . . . .
Many thanks to Diane Ravitch and her ubiquitous personal assistant, who in this rare instance did not catch the typo, but nonetheless still has great import and significance to us educators and parents out in readership land . . . . .
Question is, will Tisch opt out Long Island before parents can do it, and, will Long Island still protest while the rest of the state is forced to take the assessments until it is politically feasible for Tisch to then rescind their exceptionality.
This is a strong possibility, and it will pit haves against have nots . . . .
That’s why she is headed to Scarsdale this coming week….oh that and because she is the champion of the most “vulnerable” If she can stop worrying about Scarsdale then perhaps she can focus on the truly “vulnerable” who will miss out on opportunities if they continue to opt out….Gosh, I had trouble typing this and I’m being facetious, how can she manage to say such stuff????
It would not make a difference… Tisch did not think this one clearly through and is talking out from the land of make believe. What would happen if she exempted many parts of Long Island as a concession to quell the voices screaming do her head, but they do not opt out New York City, where many Long Islanders make their living before returning home to Nassau and Suffolk? When these Long Islanders, school teachers and administrators are found to be “developing” and are terminated, they will lose their livelihoods and it will decimate the economy in the boroughs she is considering granting an exemption.
Unemployment and the disruption of normalcy would then hit Long Island.
Clearly, Tisch should be rated not as “developing”, but “INEFFECTIVE” and mercifully be kicked in her Tusch, right out through the door.
Please! Do you think she really cares about that???
Divide and conquer is the state’s next move . . .
Robert, you beat me to it. I was just going to type “divide and conquer” then I saw your comment.
Of course, that’s been the plan from day one. It’s all about playing us all against each other while none of the fat cats who were leading our country through the last economic disaster actually go to jail. Same old story, but now just amped up using twitter. We fight for the crumbs amongst ourselves. Meanwhile, the plutocrats rake in the big bucks and destroy the public good.
On Lâche Rien
C’mon, John Ogozalek
None of the fat cats who were leading our country through the last economic disaster actually went to jail?
Sorry, John, but only educators in Atalanta get to go to jail; it’s written into the rules of “Educational Monopoly”, and a get-out-of-jail card is not available to them. The game – and it is a game – is deigned that way
An avoid-jail card is always available to the fat cats who tanked the economy and to the legislators who allowed it by deregulating the banks.
This is America 2015.
Democracy and the middle class are completely overrated. Who needs either? They have had a monopoly on societal values for far too long . . . . .
Yay! Thrilled to see Dr. Ravitch on Chris Hayes tonight! Well done! That was a discussion that should have had more time allotted. Hope more students opt out tomorrow.
Diane…you were terrific on msnbc with chris……I wonder why they chose that other woman to speak on behalf of testing……maybe it was responsible journalism…..she came across about as goofy as the entire testing concepts……appropriately.
Parents have that right to decide whether their children should take this test or not. I commend these parents for deciding that their children should not be considered a good test taker but that they have an education that would ensure they become life long learners that will help them succeed in life.
NY opt-outs may exceed 300,000.
http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/thousands-boycott-state-mandated-exams-article-1.2185411
There have been posters all over Long Island, Including one in my car and on my fence, encouraging opting out. I have even seen posters hung on telephone poles( are they still called that) calling out senator Phil Boyle on his vote in favor of the budget and against public education. I love it!
None of this opt-out craziness would have ever happened IF ONLY this reform movement were democratically decided and inclusive.
Instead, it has been mainly about the ills of poverty and the opportunism of people masquerading around as civil rights pioneers and social entrepreneurs.
Horrible is as horrible does . . . . .
As much as opting out, I hope parents will also show their alienation at the polls for those who voted for this reprehensible budget.
Such a pity! The idea of a common core is appealing to me, and stretching kids’ cognition is wonderful if it defers to human development and supports are put into place.
That’s what civilized and evolved countries do . . . .
God, this country is SO bloody dumbed down, but making crocodile purses out of wild, loose crocodiles, maybe this is the seedling of the wakeup call Americans so desperately need, now that there are shifts in awareness and responsiveness.
I wish America would do the same for wage justice and single payer healthcare.
I suppose one issue at a time? I am pleased with this level of proactively, but we should not get so happy so fast. There is SO much more work to be done that lies ahead of us.
We are up against so many powerful forces and institutions out there in plutocrat land . . . .
“On Lâche Rien”
(Sorry but you all will have to blame or perhaps better said, thank treynmindy for this new slogan. Of course many Amurikans will dismiss it out of hand because it’s French)
I think my wife pointed this idiom out to me, but I will review it again because I do not remember it.
Leave it to the French. As messed up as they are, they are 1,000 time more sensitive, egalitarian, proactive, informed, and civilized than the average American, which is reflective of why they don’t have these kinds of issues in their country (although they have others).
Picketty says we have many lessons to learn here, and he’s right.
Vive la différence . . . .
May we only have peaceful revolutions here, however.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/fed-up-parents-revolt-state-standardized-tests-article-1.2185433
I’ve been trying to keep a spreadsheet with numbers from different newspaper websites. My tally has numbers for 75 districts(out of approx 700 in the state) and is now a little over 49,000.
As my “daddy” once wrote “First you have to get Mad”. Looks like step 1 has been reached.
Hi Robert Rendo:
We must believe in the AMERICAN SPIRIT OF LIBERTY which will unite all conscientious people of all levels whether it is blue or white collar, educated or higher educated, young or old, childish or childlike. This will lead us to put up the greatest fight for our children’s rights to their civility.
There will be a tsunami of people’s strength and conscience to fight for what belongs to the original intent of American Constitution of DEMOCRACY regarding FREE Public Education equally for all young American citizens. I truthfully believe in American people with wisdom, compassion and courage. Back2basic
Hi to you also.
I would like to believe what you believe. All people should also. It’s just that America is not so United.
Yet, I have been saying for 15years now that when the suffering is bad enough and enough people suffer, a universality will be felt and those who vote against their interest or who are apolitical will wake up and come to a consensus with people like me.
It’s not to say I am a shining example of how society should be set up, but what we have now is horrible and divisive. I keep on fixating on themes like “Elysium” and “The Hunger Games”. A division of two classes suspended in a thick medium of police state.
Look at Atlanta’s educators who have been jailed and the fact that Congress could not explain to Liz Warren why virtually no one from Wall Street had been put behind bars for crashing our economy.
A plutocratic police state . . . .
But I will defer to your mindset. It is healthier and more productive.
As a close friend said (an asst-princ in an upstate-NY town) when I told her of the Lamar Alexander-Patty Murray proposed Senate bill on ESEA unplugging test results from state consequences: whee! now all we have to do is convince everybody opt out!
Great job on Chris Hayes. Those of us on Facebook commented that it looked like the two of you have some genuine intellectual animosity. Well, in YOUR case it’s intellectual!
Rigid instruction linked to the CC has taken all the joy out of instruction and learning. I love what this mother has said! Thank you for posting it!