Who has primary responsibility for children, the state or their parents? Florida says it is the state, not the parents.
Parent and teacher Andy Goldstein here makes an impassioned plea to the local school board: Stop the madness! Opt out of the state tests! Our children can’t wait! Restore the joy of learning! Opt out! Opt out!
However, State Commissioner Pam Stewart warned that opting out of state tests is illegal. She told legislators that opting out is not an option under Florida law. Teachers will be punished if they encourage parents to skip the testing. Those parents who insist on parental rights should contact their state legislator and demand changes in the law.
Florida is a state that tests children again and again and again. Parents should do what they think is right for their child. The only way to stop the testing madness is if enough parents refuse to allow their children to take the tests and ignore the State Commissioner’s threats.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Now this is TRULY INSANE and most DISGUSTING. Florida’s state commissioner, Pam Stewart, has her head up somewhere bad and needs to be FIRED.
JUST OPT OUT! Stewart is WRONG.
I’m sure Ms. Stewart can cite the law that allegedly makes it illegal for parents to parent their own children?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
If there’s a state law that says all students are required to pass a test (or maintain a minimum grade point average, or pass a swimming test) before they can be promoted to the next grade or receive a diploma . . . and the law doesn’t include a provision that permits any student to opt out of that requirement but still be promoted or receive a diploma . . . then “opting out is not an option” under state law.
People get hung up on the word “illegal” in this context, probably because we often associate it with affirmative penalties like prison and fines. But all it means is that if the state requires you to do something before you obtain some benefit, then you can’t get the benefit if you refuse to do the thing that’s required.
You can, and we are. Florida law also says that this ONE test cannot be used as the sole determining factor in promotion or retention. Yet, they do it every year, because no one stands up and says NO.
Our family isn’t asking permission from anyone one. We are refusing, and we trust our teachers to effectively teach and evaluate our children.
Then you may have an argument that the law you refer to constitutes an exemption. I imagine there’ll be a sub-arguments, though, including what it means to use the test as “the sole determining factor.”
Yes, we trust teachers to effectively evaluate our children, BUT FL, and most states, say “your grades are invalid”; what you give each quarter is false, and learning must be “proven” by an EOC. So, essentially teachers are being told that the grades assigned each quarter have no evidence of learning. Only an FL EOC is valid????
yikes
Hopefully making demands on parents will invoke them to do the opposite…human nature 🙂
Here is a complete, sound and final refutation to all the “test more = better student = better citizen/worker = higher national GDP” (because it is the privatization side of “free market” proponents that push testing):
The greatest period of economic growth and success for most economic classes has/had no correlation to students that were tested more. In fact, the 1950-1970s had no standardized testing, but all those that graduated during that period were well prepared for the real world, and made significant contributions to the economy. I don’t think any CEO that is in the 40-70 yr old range remorses, “oh, if I was only tested more I would have been more successful”.
In fact, it is sheer hypocrisy and deceit from the corporate ed-deformers to expect out of this generation of students a school accountability that they never had, or was forced upon them (and has never been supported by evidence as better preparing students for the real world, or just a test score [which has no correlation to what life requires]).
Someone needs to let Pam Stewart that the state can not over ride the 9th amendment of the US Constitution which clearly gives parents rights to how their child is educated.
Parents do not have an unlimited right to choose how their children are educated.
Why not FLERP? Students can homeschool. Various religious sects do not have to follow prescribed curriculum. What factors would limit a parent’s rights in how to educate their children? What are those limits?
TIA,
Duane
Good question Duane, I imagine I would’ve opted out of the indoctrination that Hitler enforced upon his nation/district/schools.
That’s true, parents can homeschool. But the right to pull your child out of is different from the right to decide who your child’s teachers are, or what grade your child should get in his math class, or whether your child should have to hand in the 10-page paper that his English teacher assigned, etc. Even homeschooling is subject to various state rules and regulations.
This is ultimately an ongoing constitutional question that involves weighing private rights against state interests. The more important (or “fundamental”) the right is, the stronger the state’s interest has to be.
sorry, PARENTS can homeschool
Opting out from child abuse is illegal in Florida?
“Tracy
January 30, 2015 at 2:06 pm
You can, and we are. Florida law also says that this ONE test cannot be used as the sole determining factor in promotion or retention. Yet, they do it every year, because no one stands up and says NO.”
I looked at her letter and they’re really vulnerable on the third grade reading test requirement. All of the other consequences/sanctions are partial, but that one looks like they really will refuse to promote a child from 3rd to 4th grade based on opting out of one test.
It’s interesting, because Ohio too passed the “3rd grade reading guarantee” gimmick and they almost immediately had to add options to get around how rigidly it was drafted. My local superintendent knew it was unworkable as adopted and she was right. I think Ohio modified it to avoid what had the potential to be a huge public outcry based on one high stakes standardized tests at such a young age.
So how long will they force a student to be in the third grade if his or her parents refuse the test? I doubt they would do that, because it costs another full year of school for that child. Someone should call the state’s bluff…
Wow! Wow! Diane, thanks so much for sharing!
Our kids are not data points! They’re not pawns for profits for companies that own our politicians. We must all work together to end this toxic environment of endless high-stakes testing.
What would Dr. King, or Mohandas Ghandi do in this situation. People of principle should not think twice about defying unjust laws. This fight is that important…BE DEFIANT! Fill the jails!
“If a law requires you to be an agent of injustice to another… then I say… break the law.” — HD Thoreau, “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”
It is extremely unlikely there is actually such a legal requirement. There always have to be exceptions. What happens if a child is in the hospital during the tests? If a child moves into the state after they’re administered? There is an alternative procedure and it is used in those cases. And that is what will happen if parents refuse the tests.
Consider what it would mean for the state to enforce this ridiculous policy en masse. They will force all these children who were ready for the next grade to repeat? What other sanction is there? And if a parent sued, what evidence could the state bring to bear to support its own policies?
When the authorities resort to empty threats, you know they know it’s over.
The State of Florida does not have a pretty history when it comes to mandatory high-stakes testing of children. Consider this:
http://neatoday.org/2014/03/05/high-stakes-testing-for-disabled-students-a-system-gone-horribly-wrong/
It’s not clear to me specifically what kind of bad consequences would happen to a student who opted out from a state-required test. But I wouldn’t call this an “empty threat.”
Here’s the main statute involved, from what I can tell.
http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2013/Chapter1008/All
There may be other statutes that interrelate with it, and there are surely a lot of regulations that the Commissioner has written to implement it. But you can see the basic setup of the law in that link.
These look like the highlights:
Section 1008.22(3) says: “STATEWIDE, STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENT PROGRAM.—The Commissioner of Education shall design and implement a statewide, standardized assessment program aligned to the core curricular content established in the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards. The commissioner also must develop or select and implement a common battery of assessment tools that will be used in all juvenile justice education programs in the state. These tools must accurately measure the core curricular content established in the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards. Participation in the assessment program is mandatory for all school districts and all students attending public schools, including students seeking an adult high school diploma and students in Department of Juvenile Justice education programs, except as otherwise prescribed by the commissioner. If a student does not participate in the assessment program, the school district must notify the student’s parent and provide the parent with information regarding the implications of such nonparticipation.”
So note that, yes, state law requires all public school students to take the state assessments, “except as otherwise prescribed by the commissioner.” That qualifying language suggests that the Commissioner has some authority to create exceptions from this rule. If the Commissioner has created any such exceptions, they would be listed in the implementing regulations, separate from this statute. (But based on what I can tell about the Commissioner, I wouldn’t bet on finding any.) The statute itself lists only one exemption. Section 1008.212 says that students with disability can apply for an “extraordinary exemption” from state-required assessments. There’s an involved process you have to go through.
Also note that if your child opts out of a state-required assessment, and you get a phone call or a letter from the school district that seems sort of threatening, that’s the school district fulfilling its legal obligation under Section 1008.22(3) to “notify the student’s parent and provide the parent with information regarding the implications of such nonparticipation.”
What are “the implications of . . . nonparticipation” in a state-required assessment? Except for possible mandatory retention in Grade 3, the implications aren’t spelled out in the statute itself, but they would be triggered by any other statutes, regulations, or policy that relies on the assessments. The Commissioner lists some implications in her letter. They seem to include, in the case of end-of-year assessments, having 30% of a student’s GPA being determined by a big fat zero. I don’t know what all the other implications are, but I suspect they’re quite real.
As I said, one “implication of nonparticipation” suggested within the statute itself is mandatory retention in Grade 3 due to the student being classified as having a “reading deficiency.” I say this implication is “suggested” by the statute because it’s not clear to me whether this provision would apply to a student who was not *already* classified as having a “reading disorder.” Here’s the relevant text, from Section 1008.25:
“(5) READING DEFICIENCY AND PARENTAL NOTIFICATION. —
(a)Any student who exhibits a substantial deficiency in reading, based upon locally determined or statewide assessments conducted in kindergarten or grade 1, grade 2, or grade 3, or through teacher observations, must be given intensive reading instruction immediately following the identification of the reading deficiency. The student’s reading proficiency must be reassessed by locally determined assessments or through teacher observations at the beginning of the grade following the intensive reading instruction. The student must continue to be provided with intensive reading instruction until the reading deficiency is remedied. If a student’s reading deficiency is not remedied by the end of grade 3, as demonstrated by scoring Level 2 or higher on the statewide, standardized assessment required under s. 1008.22 for grade 3, the student must be retained.”
My instinct is to read that that mandatory-retention provision as applying only to students who were previously classified as having a reading deficiency, and whose reading deficiency “is not remedied by the end of grade 3.” I would not read it as applying to students who’ve never had a “reading deficiency” prior to the Grade 3 standardized test. My reading is supported, I think, by the statute’s requirement that parents of students who exhibit a “substantial reading deficiency” must be notified, among other things, that “the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) is not the sole determiner of promotion and that additional evaluations, portfolio reviews, and assessments are available to the child to assist parents and the school district in knowing when a child is reading at or above grade level and ready for grade promotion.”
Even if the Commissioner interprets the mandatory-retention provision to apply to ALL students who do not score at a Level 2 on the Grade 3 statewide standardized assessment, regardless of whether they have previously been identified as having a “reading deficiency,” a Grade 3 opt-out student could conceivably be promoted to Grade 4 through a “good cause” exemption based on “a student portfolio” that shows the student “is performing at least at Level 2 on FCAT Reading or the common core English Language Arts assessment.” (See Section 1008.25(6)(b)(6).) That’s something the student has to apply, and has to be approved by the teacher, the principal, and the district superintendent. It’s a lot of paperwork, to put it mildly.
Ok, I just killed an hour on this.
FLERP!
We have documentation from the FLDOE that, by following the OptOut procedures, students meet the “participation” requirement. They earn a score of “NR2” which indicates that they “did not meet the attemptedness criteria” (FL DOE’s words). The procedure is clearly outlined, documented, and has been used successfully without consequence to FL children for four years. Pam Stewart’s bullying tactics do not change the law, the progression plans, or the procedures by which our students will be evaluated. We have concordant scores in place for 10th graders and portfolio evaluations in place for 3rd graders.
The scope of refusal this year is what is getting major attention. This is largely due to SB736, the insanity of EOCs for all grades (including kindergarten), the introduction of the Florida Standards Assessment (FL’s CCSS exam), and the insane amount of time benchmarking in the name of “test prep.” All of these things are enraging parents and have contributed to an explosion the Opt Out movement. We now have 25 Opt Out groups across the state and are growing in members daily.
Opting Out is a form of civil disobedience. You do not ask permission to perform civil disobedience. You do it to enact change when you are not being heard. The voices of educators are not involved in important decisions about instruction and evaluation and these punitive exams are used to rob teachers of their professional authority in the classroom. The de-professionalizing of the teacher must stop, and this our last resort to demand a voice in the conversation about public education.
What/where is the documentation? And what is “attemptedness”?
According to the FLDOE, there are several codes for “No Data Reported” (see page 13 of the link below).
The score of NR2 is coded as “Did not meet the attemptedness criteria.” (I know, I guess the DOE gets to make up their own words…)
Two separate emails, which are both public record, verify that NR2 the “strategy” of using an NR2 as part of the Opt Out process to prevent harm to the student & the teachers.
In an email from Jenny Black (Bureau of K-12 Student Assessment at FLDOE) to Cindy Hamilton (co-founder of Opt Out Orlando), she says:
“Currently, the test items are not mandatory. A student could leave any and every item blank. A student must answer at least six questions to receive a score. If the student answers 5 or less questions, they will receive an NR2, which means the student “Did Not Meet Attemptedness Criteria.”
In a separate email from Dr. Brandon McKelvey (Senior Director of Accountability, Research, and Assessment for OCPS) to Mr. Rick Roach (then OCPS School Board member, now candidate for FL Senate) states: “Students who score NR2 are not included in school or teacher accountability.”
You can find extensive information and documentation of the process in the Opt Out Orlando Facebook group.
Click to access 2014ufr.pdf
Thanks. Best of luck.
Reading these comments displays the ignorance of the average Floridian on how things are ACTUALLY run. Commissioner Stewart has no real power. She’s a puppet for the governor and does whatever he says. She’s not an elected official, she’s appointed. The media puts their own spin on her words which is where the word “illegal” even came from! And Yes, I’m sure she can cite the law since that’s all she deals with day in and day out – what a ridiculous comment! Google Florida Statute 1008.22 section 3. Anyone who is capable of using a search engine could find the law!
If you want to be angry, remember who the enemy is! It’s the law makers that YOU elect into office taking lobbists’s money and making these ridiculous laws! It’s Rick Scott and is POS administration who prevents the right thing from being done. Remember who the enemy is and fight the way you should! Protest to the governor and legislators. They are the ONLY people with power.
This— and the recent developments in AK and OH– are examples of what could happen if states are given more leeway in determining testing policies. I fear that the Republican’s proposal to “return control over education” to States in response to the RTTT over-reach will give some states more of an opportunity to close schools and turn them over to deregulated for profit schools. The only winners with Obama/Duncan’s RTTT and Alexander’s “States Rights” models are deregulated for profit schools. The losers are democratically elected local school boards and the students they serve.
States already have this leeway. If they didn’t, then the recent developments in Arkansas, Ohio, and Florida wouldn’t have developed.
The real joke about all this testing is that in past years, a passing score of 3 on most end of course exams (which is supposed to indicate “proficiency” can be achieved by a raw score of less than 35%. Of course, the kids never see a raw score, they only see a score of somewhere between 300 and 500 that no one can explain. No one knows how the new FSA tests will be scored yet and those results won’t be ready until 5 to 6 months after the tests are taken, probably because they don’t want too many kids to fail the first time these tests are taken.