The revolt against high-stakes testing continues in a big way in Washington State.
Nearly 30% of 11th grade students refused to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment, the test of the Common Core standards paid for by federal funds.
“Over one quarter of eligible Washington state high school juniors opted out of taking the Smarter Balanced exams this past spring, according to preliminary statistics released by the state education department—but in reality, the opt-out rate could be much higher.
“Officially, 27.4 percent of eligible students were “confirmed refusals” for taking the Smarter Balanced English/language arts exam, and 28.1 percent of them were confirmed refusals for the math exam. However, the percentage of potential refusals for the state could actually be much higher—the department puts the share of “potential refusals” at anywhere between 28 percent and 53 percent for both the math and E/LA tests, which are aligned to the Common Core State Standards.
“That means more than half of juniors didn’t take the test. But the state isn’t yet sure whether some of them officially refused the test or didn’t take it for some other reason.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’d say that was pretty “Smart.” Good for them.
“more than half of juniors didn’t take the test. But the state isn’t yet sure whether some of them officially refused the test or didn’t take it for some other reason”
…said Bill O’Really Gates from the Furiously Spinning Zone.
Probably all had dentists appointments on that day.
Sure.
These people won’t even admit defeat when it is staring them in the face.
That is the very definition of denial.
Looks like Common Core testing in Bill Gates’ home state is imploding. The poor dear. I feel for him. I really do.
The SBAC did not count for anything for the 11th graders, so I’m glad they opted out. No need to take even more tests. More would have opted out, but in some districts, if you are a boundary exception (attending a school not in your area), you could not opt out of the test without risking your boundary exception approval.
Unfortunately, the link used above is a misleading article quoting Randy Dorn who is an opponent of the Opt Out movement and tries to hide the real numbers. In fact, over 62,000 students opted out in Washington state – including over 54% of all 11th grade students. For more information, see the following article. http://coalitiontoprotectourpublicschools.org/over-62-000-students-opt-out-of-sbac-test-in-washington-state
Thank you David Spring for correcting the record.
Dorn has threatened to investigate schools (such as my school) where there were high opt-out rates. He has threatened to punish teachers for misconduct if they colluded in the opt-out movement.
It is a losing strategy to make martyrs out of teachers. I will be interested to see if Dorn is just blowing hot air.