This is part of an email conversation that I received. It is an exchange between two parents:
The first one writes:
“Hello Everyone!
“Well…it is that time of year again…TCAP testing. I really hate this time of year.
“As I have done for the past TEN years for all of my children, I opted my daughter out of the test. I sent my letter to the school district and of course, I am met with anger and tons of letters from the superintendent of Colorado schools saying that it is illegal for me to take my child out of this test. My daughter’s teachers are threatening her that she will be put in all remedial classes next year if she doesn’t take it and I am required to sign something that says I am aware of how wrong my actions are. Last year, my youngest daughter was met with such criticism and animosity that she begged me to take the test so people would leave her alone. Her teachers and the principal were so mean to her that she was afraid to go to school and afraid to not take the test. My youngest daughter has an anxiety disorder which comes with terrible panic attacks. The children are under so much pressure to do well on this test that she is up puking and crying before every testing day. I am so excited to do that again this year. :0(
“My question to all of you is….do you all have to deal with this? Does the admin at the schools that your children attend give you a hard time over this? The people at my kids’ school make me feel like an uneducated ignorant horrible parent. I’m just getting so tired of it and wondered if anyone out there feels the same.”
“Thanks for listening,”
Here is one of the answers she received:
“First of all, I wouldn’t sign a damn thing for that school.
“Secondly, if your child has an anxiety disorder then your child qualifies for a 504 since she has a ‘hidden disability’ under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Ask your child’s therapist and/or pediatrician for medical documentation recommending she not be tested. This is what I have established for my kids and it is written into the 504 they are NOT taking TCAP or any other standardized district, state or national test.
“The school doesn’t bother me.
“Then, I would take my husband, brother or big burly male neighbor with me and tell the principal that if one more person at the school threatens my child you are going to sue and follow that up with a call to the district. Talk to the teachers at conferences and tell them the same thing. Tell them you will sue them individually; it’s child abuse.
“Next, those jerks have to leave school sometime; be waiting for them off school grounds. I saw my son’s ex-principal in Barnes and Noble and she couldn’t get out of that store fast enough when she saw me coming. She knew I’d make a scene and I would have.
“Lastly, tell your story of child abuse to the media and tell the principal and superintendent you’re doing it. Tell the principal and superintendent you’re going to picket outside the school and hand out leaflets telling parents how to refuse testing. Intimidation works both ways.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t understand why more parents don’t seize the opportunity presented by this testing. Tell the principal you’ll be happy to allow your daughter to take the test, in exchange for a little something-something. Maybe money, or good grades for your daughter, or what have you. If your daughter has previously scored well or has good grades, explain that her taking the test will bring the numbers up. If she has scored poorly or gets low grades, you can still do this — just agree to pull her OUT of testing in exchange for a little something-something.
I mean — isn’t EVERYONE motivated by profit where children and education are concerned? As for your daughter, you’re just modeling good entrepreneurial behavior — right?
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I love this! If teachers can get “merit” pay, shouldn’t the students as well?
In all seriousness, I am already a little aggravated about the deal making rollover that screwed my profession to the wall, and I have some hard-working, heart-and soul, “effective” (that leaves a bad taste in my brain) teachers who are saying things like “My job makes me nauseous” and quite effectively noticing “They are absolutely taking kids and what’s good for them out of it. This is no longer about what’s good for kids.”
This post reminds me of a conversation shared with me where an district was asking a group of teachers to sacrifice even more of their personal time to the insatiable data-beast without any concession, recognition, return/respect. The district response was to suggest that because teachers are professionals, they should just do it.
In the situation described in the post, I would also suggest NOT signing anything. As a matter of fact, draft your own letter for THEM to sign, acknowledging that YOU are the parent, that there is a difference between learning and coerced testing. And if what you described about their conduct is true…wow.
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Exactly why I am sending mine to a private school…it may take a second or third job beyond teaching, but it’s going to happen so help me.
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I certainly understand the sentiment. However, I truly believe that we must support our public schools and when teachers are taking their own children out of them, we are tacitly supporting the hype that the public schools are not good quality. Don’t we need to work within the system to make positive change rather than remove ourselves from the system and put the onus of challenging the system on someone else’s shoulders?
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I disagree; my first responsibilty is to my child. I will not expose my child to the shenanigans we have to put these children through while we wait for things to get better, if they ever do. As a big public schools proponent, I never ever ever thought I would reach this decision.
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Ditto what Chris said. I never thought I’d put my kids in private school, but then, I never thought that sending them to public school would mean forcing developmentally inappropriate tests, homework and curricular standards on them which would kill any possibility of loving learning.
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Ditto what Chris and Dienne have communicated.
Why is it that a private school teacher can look me in the eye and tell me what I need to know (in narrative discourse) about my child, whereas here in my public school I must look a parent in their eyes and communicate whether or not I think their kid will pass “the test” or not and determine what we need to do as a result?
It’s bull crap.
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I agree with Shannon to the point that I would say the school is subject to the needs of the public (parents, community…), the public should not be forced to cooperate as they and the schools are transformed into agents of industry.
If you don’t wish your public schools to be mines that your children and their teachers to be cast into to pound rocks hoping to reveal value for the masters; if administrators and teachers willingly or out of fear are lying about or inflating the necessity of serving the numbers beast instead of the young people; if it starts to look like education for many/most is working to support the money investment of others instead of the life investment of learners…
Don’t run, don’t give in. Speak up, take a stand. It’s the best thing you could teach your children. This isn’t right, this isn’t fair, it shouldn’t be this way should not equal “I give up”.
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I opted my children out of all testing at their school. I submitted a letter to the principal prior to the first day of school. I did feel a little sorry for her given that she’s new to the school, district, and state so she didn’t really know what to do with me. My kids are only in pre-K and K but still we have the kindergarten entrance assessment called WA Kids and the DIBELS – Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.
When the school realized that they had enough students to merit hiring another kindergarten teacher, the current kindergarten teachers were asked for a list of students they felt would be a better fit with another teachers. Of course, my child was moved.
My child didn’t have a real problem with being shifted to a new class but I’m certain the teacher simply wanted to get rid of the kid whose mother wouldn’t tow the line. I’m a teacher in the district myself and have to administer several tests annually, but I try to allow the students the opportunity to relax and take their time. I do gently push them to take it, but only because I teach high school and these tests are graduation requirements. I have counseled a few students who really stress over testing to simply do what they can and then focus on completing the alternative assessment option by doing the portfolio. I just hope that by the time my own children reach high school this testing madness has fallen by the wayside. Do you think we can squash it within the next 10 years?
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Here’s another reason to opt out of DIBELs.
mCLASS®:DIBELS® Next
http://www.wirelessgeneration.com/assessment/mclass-dibels/overview
What is mCLASS®:DIBELS® Next?
Early literacy assessment software with an exciting series of research-based enhancements for grades K–6.
This “exiting” enhancement will allow research into more than just DIBEL scores.
FAQs for educators
https://www.mclasshome.com/wgen/LoginFAQ.do
12. Why does the mCLASS system require my email address?
We need a current email address so we can communicate with you if you lose or forget your password.
13. What else will you do with my email address?
Wireless Generation does not share email addresses with third parties. We occasionally use email to communicate important product and service updates.
And what kind of important product and service updates might Wireless Generation send?
Watch this video from their parent education division, Amplify!
http://www.amplify.com/company#intro
And consider the direction of their grandfather owner, News Corp!
http://truth-out.org/news/item/15117-from-tabloids-to-tablets-news-corp-spends-big-on-la-school-board-race-sets-sights-on-public-education-market
A subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp — parent company of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal — has spent a whopping $250,000 on the Los Angeles school board race, just as the corporation focuses on making money off of public education. News Corp and its for-profit education subsidiaries are also members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and the education initiatives promoted by News Corp’s preferred candidates track the ALEC agenda.
Murdoch has called the for-profit K-12 education industry “a $500 billion sector in the US alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed” — and his News Corp is investing big to capture that market. In 2010, News Corp acquired Wireless Generation, a for-profit online education, software, and testing corporation, for $360 million. Its latest venture is a digital K-12 curricula to be sold and taught on a specialized “Amplify Tablet” that runs on the Android platform.
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Ohh… I failed to mention an Oregon connection.
You can conveniently click on a Merchandise button at this link.
http://www.co-store.com/dibels
But wait! Is there controversy in DIBEL-land??? (btw, CTL = Center on Teaching and Learning)
http://dibels.org/response_to_uo_goals.html
DIBELS Next® Benchmark Goals: A Statement from the DIBELS® Authors
t has come to our attention that the University of Oregon/CTL data system recently released their own version of benchmark goals for DIBELS Next®. Please note that the official DIBELS Next benchmark goals have not changed. The CTL-proposed benchmark goals do not come from the authors of DIBELS® and we do not recommend using them. The goals proposed by CTL do not meet the DIBELS Next® technical specifications for official benchmark goals.
For a discussion of the technical and foundational differences between the two different sets of benchmark goals, view this video from DIBELS authors Dr. Roland Good and Dr. Ruth Kaminski.
http://media.dibels.org/benchmark_goals1/
The CTL goals put the typical benchmark goal at around the 72nd percentile. We are concerned that the CTL goals identify over 70% of students as having less than adequate reading skills.
By contrast, the official DIBELS Next benchmark goals are typically around the 39th percentile, which is consistent with the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress, on which 33% of students scored below the level of reading skills judged to be basic. According to the NAEP, “basic denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at a given grade.”
There is certainly nothing wrong with aiming higher, and we encourage schools to always strive for improvement. However, the DIBELS benchmark goals are the point where we want all students to reach, which means average-performing and high-performing students will score above or well above the benchmark goal.
http://ctl.uoregon.edu/resources/web_dds
http://ctl.uoregon.edu
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Wow! My daughter has been diagnosed with central auditory processing disorder and attention deficit disorder, but had to take the reading grad test 3 times before she passed and is now faced with having to pass the math grad test. She didn’t have an issue with the writing but her processing of written or auditory information takes much longer because she has to process then recall learned information which can take some time and that creates high anxiety within her. I have watched my daughter cry and feel that she is not intelligent because she processes information differently. I have had to cry with her and reassure her that she is not unintelligent but she learns differently than her classmates. It is not that she doesn’t have the knowledge it takes her longer to retrieve it than the average student. She is supposed to graduate this year and is afraid because now she has to struggle through this math grad test which I predict half of the people serving in our esteemed legislature couldn’t pass if they tried! I am a teacher and never thought to opt her out because I want her to graduate on time. She has a 504 Plan but I was unaware that I could have it amended to opt her out of the grad tests. Colleges look at their scores and determine entrance. I requested for her plan to be changed because her school thought that excellence could be deemed via the grading scale so they created one which was ridiculously biased towards students like her. I feel as a parent we are constantly fighting against an inequitable system which neglects to take the whole child into consideration before they make ludicrous policies. I am exhausted but filled with the energy to fight for parents and children who don’t understand this huge sham called standardized testing aka achievement gap.
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As a high school principal, I find the 2nd email in this exchange disturbing. There are certainly much better ways for a parent to communicate concerns about testing to school officials than “taking a big burly male” with you to the school, threatening to sue, or accosting the principal in public. The first parent is asking for help and I have some suggestions. Parents do have rights and the best way to demonstrate them is through opening channels of communication with the school. Ask for a meeting, be polite but firm and honestly share your issues. If your child has anxiety, express that issue! Ask the school for help and to partner with you to meet your child’s needs and if your child needs a 504 certainly pursue that resource.
Most principals are willing to listen and collaborate with parents. If your principal will not listen, it may have to do with district or state policies on testing. In many states, principals need every student enrolled and available to participate in testing because the state sets standards for assessment participation. In PA, that expectation is 95% student participation or our school does not make AYP. This can be difficult when students have extended absences, chronic truancy, or even family vacations. Principals are under great pressure to succeed! Our jobs, our school reputations and in many states, our school grade or rating depends on test scores, test participation and attendance. Most of the principals, I have met from across the country, would agree that state assessments are out of hand, too lengthy, too high stakes, and provide undo stress on students as well as contribute to a significant decline in instructional time.
Parents, if you dislike your state’s assessments, don’t attack the principals. Please don’t call all of us “jerks”, even if some of us might be. We are delivering the message that is forced upon us by our states. Instead, call your legislators, Secretary of Education, Governors and express your discontent. Tell them your story, get other parents to advocate with you and share their stories. Parents and their voices can make a difference. Educators are making their points with government leaders, but often those ears are deaf to our concerns. Politicians need to hear from parents and students about the anxiety, pressure and loss of instruction that they experience with these assessments that are allegedly improving our schools. Also, call the news media, share with them what this testing does to your child. Just don’t beat up the principals! Parents, teachers, and principals must all collaborate and communicate to effectively meet the needs of our children. Work persistently to build open honest relationships. I’ll quote my superintendent who often reminds our principals, “Say what you mean, mean what you say, but don’t say it mean”! PS: I’m a big burly male, too!
Michael E. Allison
Hopewell High School, Principal
1215 Longvue Avenue
Aliquippa, PA 15001
Phone 724 375 6691 ext. 2021
Fax 724 378 1705
michael.allison@hopewell.k12.pa.us
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I agree with you that it’s best to keep things civil as much as possible. However, did you read the first email? The school is threatening to put her daughter in remedial classes, they’re trying to force her to sign a statement that what she’s doing is horrible, they’re treating both her and her daughter with “animosity”. If the school administrators want civility, they should go first.
And I also realize that principals are under enormous pressure to force kids into taking the tests. But, as a parent, that isn’t my problem. My problem is to do what’s best for my child. Parents who are opting their kids out don’t want “accomodations” if that means their child still has to take the test. The point is that the test itself is wrong. The kids know it, the parents know it, the teachers know it and *you* know it. The “I’m just following orders” excuse doesn’t fly, sorry. Yes, it’s hard, but principals as much as parents and everyone else need to stand up and say “enough”, even if (especially if) it’s risky to do so.
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“We are delivering the message that is forced upon us by our states.”
Difficult as it may be, principals need to stand up and do the right thing. All this state standardized testing is institutional child abuse.
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“We’re only following orders” is a really lame defense.
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It worked for a lot of people after WWII.
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I think your best bet is to find other parents in your district who are also opting out, together you can be a support system for each other. Be vocal and proud of the fact that you are opting out. Make other parents aware as to why you are making this choice and maybe you will change other parents minds. Don’t let the administration or teachers make you feel like you are doing something wrong, because you are not. Find groups in your area that you can get support from. Join the new group “Network for public education” and they can connect you with a group in your area that will give you support in your decision. Realize that if you have been doing this for a long time on your own with no support then you are a strong person and your daughter should be very proud. Administration and teachers can be very intimidating, So you just stay strong.
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“We’re only following orders” is a really lame defense. Isn’t this the excuse that teachers are using, though?
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I opted my third grader out of Evanston, Illinois’ administration of the ISAT (Illinois Standards blah blah blah). In fact, the test is being administered this week — a morning session each day, with an extra afternoon session today. I have been taking him in to school after the test period every morning.
Thus far we have spent our mornings exploring architecture and “cool buildings” (in my son’s parlance. I showed him how to research a topic on the internet, and we are filling out homemade worksheets that require him to gather facts (building name, location, architect) and to express a viewpoint (why is this building “cool architecture”). We discovered the Reversible Destiny Lofts in Tokyo, the Ontario College of Art & Design building, the Hearst Building in New York, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, and Burj Khalifa — which blew his mind. We are going to incorporate his work into a Powerpoint presentation for his class.
Today, since the test is essentially all day long, we are going to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the new Picasso exhibit. There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that his school will be taking a field trip to see these priceless treasures, so today is supplemental art education day.
I should clarify that there is no opt out provision for our state tests — Illinois state law requires that the test be administered to every child. I had a heated exchange with an employee of the Assessment Department of the local school district about whether they are going to pull my son out of class NEXT week to administer the test. However, I spoke with his principal and his teacher, and both assured me that they would not engage in the kind of shenanigans Diane cited in the blog post. In any case, I told my son that if they try to make him take the test, he may tell the principal/proctor that he will not take it, and should ask to be returned to his class to do some actual learning. If forced to take the test, he will hand in a blank page.
A couple of other parents have also kept their kids out of testing this week at our school, and they are eager to begin working with our state legislators to add an opt-out provision to the state testing statute. That would remove any element of conflict from a parent’s exercise of his/her parental right to make education decisions for the child.
I work from home and have the luxury to make all these things happen, but if there were formal mechanisms for opting out — a “study hall” in the school or a series of supplemental classes for the kids who aren’t taking the test — parents with less flexibility could follow their consciences.
I have a gut feeling that parents are fed up with standardized testing. We are the voters and the taxpayers, and it’s time we start telling our elected officials that perhaps raising a couple million dollars to get elected does not make them education experts, and that perhaps they should educate themselves on the corrosive effect of testing on education lest we end up with a generation of drones incapable of critical thinking. It’s the only way any of this will change.
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I think parents need to understand that most (if not all) of the time, the teachers are not in support of the testing at all, but are under direct orders. This may well go for the administration too. If the teachers’ behavior is oddly stiff and unnatural (as opposed to some passionate, heartfelt explanation of why the testing is important and beneficial), that’s why. If the teachers are avoiding encounters as much as possible, that’s why. How would you behave when forced to promote and enforce a policy with which you vigorously disagreed?
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I wouldn’t tell students that they’ll be held back for not taking it, like in this example. If administration tried to force me to say that, then I’d sue.
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As a high school principal, I find the 2nd email in this exchange disturbing. There are certainly much better ways for a parent to communicate concerns about testing to school officials than “taking a big burly male” with you to the school, threatening to sue, or accosting the principal in public. The first parent is asking for help and I have some suggestions. Parents do have rights and the best way to demonstrate them is through opening channels of communication with the school. Ask for a meeting, be polite but firm and honestly share your issues. If your child has anxiety, express that issue! Ask the school for help and to partner with you to meet your child’s needs and if your child needs a 504 certainly pursue that resource.
Most principals are willing to listen and collaborate with parents. If your principal will not listen, it may have to do with district or state policies on testing. In many states, principals need every student enrolled and available to participate in testing because the state sets standards for assessment participation. In PA, that expectation is 95% student participation or our school does not make AYP. This can be difficult when students have extended absences, chronic truancy, or even family vacations. Principals are under great pressure to succeed! Our jobs, our school reputations and in many states, our school grade or rating depends on test scores, test participation and attendance. Most of the principals, I have met from across the country, would agree that state assessments are out of hand, too lengthy, too high stakes, and provide undue stress on students as well as contribute to a significant decline in instructional time.
Parents, if you dislike your state’s assessments, don’t attack the principals. Please don’t call all of us “jerks”, even if some of us might be. We are delivering the message that is forced upon us by our states. Instead, call your legislators, Secretary of Education, Governors and express your discontent. Tell them your story, get other parents to advocate with you and share their stories. Parents and their voices can make a difference. Educators are making their points with government leaders, but often those ears are deaf to our concerns. Politicians need to hear from parents and students about the anxiety, pressure and loss of instruction that they experience with these assessments that are allegedly improving our schools. Also, call the news media, share with them what this testing does to your child. Just don’t beat up the principals! Parents, teachers, and principals must all collaborate and communicate to effectively meet the needs of our children. Work persistently to build open honest relationships. I’ll quote my superintendent who often reminds our principals, “Say what you mean, mean what you say, but don’t say it mean”! PS: I’m a big burly male, too!
Michael E. Allison
Hopewell High School, Principal
1215 Longvue Avenue
Aliquippa, PA 15001
Phone 724 375 6691 ext. 2021
Fax 724 378 1705
michael.allison@hopewell.k12.pa.us
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Congratulations to the Colorado (?) mother for opting out of testing for the past 10 years. I am about to opt my 5th grade son out of testing. This is only our 3rd year of opting out, and I can honestly tell you, I have never encountered a bigger bully than the principal at my kid’s school. She has spread ridiculous lies about me, threatened to revoke our transfer and has called school cops on me numerous times just to intimidate me. She even threatened to have us arrested for criminal trespassing if we came to school on a testing day and my son wasn’t taking the test. She also said that we would be charged with truancy if our kid missed more than 10 days of school because we were opting him out of testing. Throughout her entire 9-year career at the school, she has run off some of the best teachers and surrounded herself with a faculty of mostly buttlickers and backstabbers. My husband has recently asked that I “lay low” this upcoming opt out season. I think I might actually take his advice and just quietly keep my kids home on testing days.
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Great advice! The deformers know they are on shaky grounds.
Where’s Obama? Answer: forgot, he hired Dumcan.
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Yes indeed. Sue those public school bastards. We SEE why charters and vouchers are so popular, even if misguided, because the public schools are intrinsically tyrannical. They do not believe in freedom of any sort for anyone. Their behavior is fundamentally unAmerican, and THAT’s the food upon which the privatization movement feeds. Public schools have to change or they will indeed by eliminated and be replaced by as many small schools as fast food restaurants, and with much less supervision. It all reminds me of the Roman Catholic church before Luther. It could not or would not reform its corrupt practices, and then we had Christian fragmentation. Painful. But that worked out pretty well didn’t it? Dissenting sects? Maybe we are just in the early stages of a reorganization of American education along protestant lines. What’s so bad about that? Well, I know, enthusiastic sects that like to think there are witches, and who like to protest homosexuality and who burn Korans. Extremists. Even corrupt extremists. Even shyster corrupt crooks. But when the public schools are pervaded by a culture of priestly privilege and luxury in the name of the community, what can one do but get out? The notion of Arne Duncan as the education pope and Obama as god is only faintly amusing. Rather more like Satan and his lead fallen angel going about the earth corrupting the poor, sad, misguided mortals by preaching a false utopia and a return to the Garden of Eden in our own time.
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I wish every parent would opt out of standardized tests. I teach 3rd grade, which in my state is when the “big, fat, ugly test” starts being inflicted upon our kids. My heart breaks every single year. Kids puke from nerves, have embarrassing accidents, sweat, cry, shake…I don’t know under what circumstances anxiety like this would be appropriate for a nine year old, but testing isn’t it. I feel sick myself, trying to cheer on my students while they take a stupid, time-wasting test, instead of cheering them on while they learn things that matter. I feel like a fraud while guiding my class through mandatory “test-skills” practice.
I’d like to echo Michael Allison’s plea above: if you’re a parent and unhappy with the assessments, please please please contact lawmakers and tell them! Talk to the media! Share your experiences! Teachers’ objections to standardized tests seem to be largely ignored or written off as fear (that our awful, terrible teaching will be exposed! Oh no!). Large groups of parents, organizing and opting out, may just succeed in sending a message that will be heard.
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I would like to echo every point you have made. So much time wasted with little or no support for REAL learning, but tons of mandates, support, flashy materials and idiotic new language for old ideas REAL TEACHERS already knew, regimented testing for magically turning young people into numbers… I think the teachers in my school (and me too, I hope) are good at not transferring aggravation and stress, but you should see the faces…how can the kids NOT feel it?
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I’m not a fan of the TCAP (and even less so of PARCC, which starts in Colorado in two years), but I’m hardly going to subject my child to a lot of drama for something that is my issue. I also have grave concerns about the actual impact of keeping my child from taking the test if it simply means she’s the only one in her class who didn’t. Will someone in the district administration hear the message? Will the state lawmakers hear, as they are, after all, the only ones who really count? No, not unless I contact them directly.
As much as I as an individual would like to overthrow the standardized testing system, I want to be realistic about the potential casualties as well. Will opting out of the TCAP support her teachers (who don’t want to do be doing this either), or will it make it more likely that the teacher will see another year without a raise and possibly be subject to a pay cut when SB-191 (the one calling for 50% of the evaluation to be tied to student achievement) is implemented next year? Will it support her principal and the school when it comes to receiving funding and resources, or will it cause them to receive less? Will opting out help at the district level, both in terms of funding and politics? Will it save my child from test anxiety and pressure (which hasn’t been an issue so far–obviously it’s a very different question if test anxiety is having a severe impact on her life), or will it merely substitute anxiety and pressure of a different sort that I’ve imposed on her, and to what end? Or will opting out merely result in a lower score for her grade, a lower score for her school, and more material for the “reformers” to use when talking about “failing” schools? These are not theoretical issues. My child will be better served if her excellent teachers keep teaching (rather than leaving because so many are in a “bleeped if you do and bleeped if you don’t” spot when it comes to testing these days) and if her excellent principal remains at the school and if her school keeps their scores high enough to not land on an improvement plan while parents and teachers and principals and other concerned individuals work with lawmakers to change the approach to public education.
Might it work if a large group of students and/or teachers opted out? Definitely. But on an individual level I think I can make a bigger difference by focusing my efforts on the people who write the laws and decide funding: lawmakers.
We need to contact representatives, talk to people at the district level, and keep pushing for overall change. Engaging in a battle at the local level (with my principal) won’t even be a blip on the screen for the district administration or the Board of Education, and certainly not with the public or legislators. But if I write and call and protest and talk to them in person, my message will be heard and will be heard.
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Your reasons are all good reasons not to opt out.
You should not opt out — you should THREATEN to opt out. Or threaten NOT to opt out, as the case may be, depending on the past performance of your child. Hold the threat over your child’s teacher’s or principal’s head and get yourself a little something-something as concession. That’s the game that the system encourages. See? You’ve learned something about being a good entrepreneur already!
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This teacher would silently cheer if parents opted their children out of these ridiculous tests. I know what my students’ strengths and weaknesses are without them. If we need to use them, let’s use them diagnostically, and not to beat schools over the head. My district is currently researching replacing current district assessments with the STAR assessment. We’re jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. I never thought i’d be defending our district assessments. At least the district assessments were presented in a format that was similar to how the students learned the skills. The presentation on STAR included a talk about how all this data will help us compare teachers and aid in “professional development”. Bullsh**. It will be another tool for administrators to pressure teachers into teaching to the test.
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My daughter, who is in the 11th grade, was victimized by her principal and teacher today because she submitted an opt out letter. She was made to feel wrong and unsupportive of her school because she wasn’t going to take the test. She is currently her class president, a link-crew mentor to younger students, tour leader, sports team member and future ASB president… that makes her the face of the school… or so says her teacher and principal. She has certain responsibilities to live up to, one of which is to take the test. Because, well, as they told her, the API score affects home prices. They even went as far as to say that what was doing was thinking only of herself… not of the greater community at large. They wanted to know if she was going to grow up and not vote because, well… because she doesn’t want to – even if it affects the city, the county, the state, the nation… and yes, the world. They said that – to a 17 year old. An impressionable young lady who has logged 53 volunteer ASB hours for March, and 30+ for each of Jan and February. And that is just 2013… she’s been arriving to school an hour early every day of high school. This is where she wants to be, this is what is important to her… to support her school.
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Wow, for those opposed to T-cap, wait until you get a good look at common core and the PARCC assessment. The nightmare is about to get worse. As a teacher, I have been working with the debut of common core in Tennessee this year. I don’t even know where to begin to express my frustration with the entire common core movement. It combines an exceptionally narrow curriculum with testing that is vague and open to interpretation (when our group of 6 teachers scored student work we frequently came up with three different scores). The narrow focus of common core does not coincide with the broad based knowledge required for ACT/SAT testing. So until they get all testing aligned, students caught in the middle are screwed. (I have one of these students)
The PARCC assessment is proposing to do away with students accommodations (for students with disabilities) because it invalidates the test! So we now have TESTING dictating what accommodations a special education student may receive. All students besides the very most severe will be expected to sit in front of a computer and take the test. If a special education student didn’t have a disability they wouldn’t need accommodations!
The worst crime of state assessments is that they they fail to recognize the individuality of learning. Students have brains that mature at different rates, learn at different rates, learn in different ways, and benefit from testing in different ways.
It is all insane!
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I thought that in Illinois there was an opt out option, except for ISAT.
Am I incorrect. The Evanston father who posted said that there wasnt an opt out option….confused.
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