Education activist Marie Corfield reports a stunning development in Néw Jersey. The president of the Néw Jersey State Board of Education, Mark Biedron, said at a public hearing:
“We know we can’t force any kid to put their hands on a keyboard.”
Marie thinks he is listening to the voices of parents and educators who object to PARCC testing.
Marie says: “For Biedron to say this in public is huge. Print it out and attach it to your opt-out letter. This is a game-changer.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware and commented:
Do you see this Delaware parents: straight from the mouth of the President of the New Jersey State Board of Education! Send those opt out letters today. Delaware needs to catch up with the NJ movement yesterday!
Brilliant and truly moral he is. Yet, he knows little of poverty and the daily work of urban schools. Additionally, he is surrounded by the ignorance of assumption.
Yet, he offers a ray of hope for moral courage in NJ .
Thanks for posting this, Diane; there’s a lot happening in NJ! Commissioner Hespe also said on Wednesday that it’s up to districts to decide how to handle refusals. The link is here–as are links to media coverage and awesome parent and teacher testimony from Wednesday’s State Board of Education meeting.
http://teacherbiz.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/newsflash-nj-superintendents-are-allowed-to-accommodate-parcc-refusals/
Mark Biedron, the NJ President of the Board of Education should send a letter to all of the superintendents to let them know the students have a right to refuse and should not have to stay home during testing. This must be sent out to all schools because ther must be consistency. Thank you!
A fascinating turn of events here in NJ! I hoping to persuade my district to be a leader here in crafting an opt out policy like those in Bloomfield and Delran…