The school board of Colorado Springs District 11 has voted to opt most students out of Common Core state testing and to seek permission from the state to administer sample tests.
“The Board of Education in Colorado Spring District 11 is taking a different approach than Lee. It voted to opt most students out of Common Core testing and then ask the state government for permission to assess a randomly selected group of students — enough to meet federal requirements. The tests involved the Common Core test created by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Colorado Measures of Academic Success.
“The resolution that passed unanimously this week also gives permission to parents to opt their own children out of these tests. KOAA-TV quoted Superintendent Nicolas Gledich as saying the district hopes to devise its own assessment system within the next three years.”
Read the full link for the resolution.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Colorado’s Coalition for Better Education (thecbe.org) is putting up two billboards re: Opting Out of High-Stakes testing. Hooray for thecae.org and Don Perl, it’s founder and first teacher in this nation to refuse to give his students the high-stakes test.
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My hope: They do better than Indiana has done in opting out. In Indiana the basic assumptions in Common Core are retained and are no better written than Common Core. MAYBE Colorado Springs will get some educators to make up the tests and have realistic expectations as to what the tests are for, how often they should be given et al.
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Gordon Wilder: what if teachers wrote their own tests, as they did for generations, creating the greatest nation in the world?
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Why that would be a Gatesian “cacophony” and we can’t have that can we???
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Okay, so maybe someone can help me. It says “adhering to the federal requirements only”
So do the federal requirements permit a sample of students to be tested, or is the federal requirement that all students be tested?
Because if it’s “a sample” then states are adopting these federal testing requirements in ways that are not required.
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That’s a good question. Are the states over-doing it?
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It’s important, I think. If states are saying this is mandated by the federal government, and yet there is room within that mandate for testing of a sample rather than tens of millions of kids, then states have not been wholly straight with us.
Are they adopting this because it’s a federal mandate or because they agree with it and wanted to do it anyway? People have to know or they can’t hold the proper party or parties accountable.
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There was a requirement that a minimum of 95% of students (grades 3 to 8) take the standardized tests under NCLB. I believe the same requirement of 95% compliance hold true under RTTT and RTTT lite (NCLB waivers). The penalty was supposed to be withholding of federal funding. To he best of my knowledge this has never been enforced as some school districts in NY had 40+% opt outs last spring.
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Looks like the hundredth monkey has figured out the tests are a rip-off, so now it is general knowledge.
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The article doesn’t say: Can the “randomly selected” students who are to be tested opt out? It really doesn’t seem fair to them. They become scapegoats or guinea pigs or lab rats or some other poor testing fauna. Will they be compensated for being subjected to testing torture?
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