Jonathan Pelto reports that some school officials have warned parents that they do not have the right to opt their child out of the Smarter Balanced test of Common Core. Pelto says they are wrong.
He writes:
Despite repeated posts here at Wait, What? and the work of a number of state-wide efforts to inform state and local officials that they must respect a parent’s fundamental right to opt their children out of the Common Core SBAC Test, a significant number of local school superintendents, and their staff, continue to mislead parents, throw up barriers or harass parents into believing that they have lost their right to protect their children from an unfair test that is rigged to ensure that as many as 7 in 10 children fail.
So once again, let us be clear!
*There is no federal or state law, regulation or policy that prohibits a parent or guardian from opting their children out of these inappropriate, unfair and discriminatory tests.
*There is no federal or state law, regulation or policy that allows the government or local school districts to punish parents or their children if the parent refuses to allow their child or children to participate in the Common Core SBAC testing scam.
Not only is there no law, regulation or policy that prohibits parents from opting their children out of the Common Core SBAC test, but although the Malloy administration issued a memo last year instructing superintendents, principals and local school officials on how to mislead parents, when Governor Malloy’s Commissioner of Education was finally brought before the General Assembly’s Education Committee on March 12, 2014 to address concerns surrounding the Common Core and Common Core SBAC testing system, Commissioner Pryor admitted that,
“On an individual level, I don’t believe that there’s any specific provision in law regarding consequences… To my knowledge there are no state provisions that are specific, or no federal provisions that are specific to an individual student.”
The Chairman of the State Board of Education, Attorney Alan Taylor, agreed with the Commissioner and went even further stating that there was no legal action that the state or school district could take to punish a parent or child who opted out of the Common Core SBAC test.
See his post for the relevant links.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Until parents stand up and keep their kids home on testing days, things will not change. I see the glass as half full. We can be proactive and turn things around. I hear fear tactics all around me about big government and they are right. So, let’s take our schools back to the community. Let’s return to real teaching.
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I hand out the template letter for my state, along with the website information ; http://unitedoptout.com, to my students parents and guardians whenever I get the chance.
Other colleagues are mailing the information to parents as well. We’ve also posted information about opt out in the teacher’s room.
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This site and the org sponsoring it seem sketchy to me, Communist Teacher. They favor opt-outs in some situations but are actively opposing them in others; and their info on my state is definitely out-of-date and inaccurate.
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Again, Common Core tests are, indeed, rigged to fail students so it’ll be a pretext to privatize, with some public relations firm hired by billionaires to say, “See? We told you so. Public Education is failing your child. Let us, the Corporation, take care of your child to enure their success at the expense of your tax dollars,” ‘take care of your child,’ meaning, hire inexperienced teachers for peanuts, don’t provide differentiated services to address various disabilities and special education needs, serve Ramen noodles at lunchtime.
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Well-put!
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Back the bullies down with documented, legal evidence.
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They let homeschoolers drop in for sports or plays, so there’s that precedence. Pick and choose what you like from the public school menu.
No forced Common Core, school choice now.
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So what happens if parents opt out anyway. What leverage would force them to go along? What if it’s a very large portion of parents doing this. I don’t know anyone with enough power to counter that.
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In my state, the DOE sent a notice to everyone telling them they couldn’t opt out but then saying (in a roundabout manner) that there was no consequence for not taking the test. As long as students are not truant, there’s really noting anyone can do.
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I teach in a Connecticut public school. Mr. Pelto is correct when he notes that parents in many districts have been given misleading information suggesting that they do not have the right to have their children opt out of the SBAC. The same approach was used last year when districts did the field test of SBAC. Part of Connecticut’s professional responsibility code for teachers notes that educators must not spread false information. Maybe some of the higher ups in Hartford need to study that section.
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School officials may not be legally empowered to punish students who refuse to take the exams, but in the case of gate-keeping tests, don’t education officials have the legal authority to keep students who refuse from advancing or graduating?
If that’s the case, then they can claim that people’s rights are not being abridged, while maintaing objective conditions that force compliance.
It’s sort of analogous to Anatole France’s quip that the law, in its impartial majesty, forbids the rich and poor alike from stealing bread and sleeping under bridges. In this case, the law in its wisdom is saying that you don’t have to take the exams, but then you must either go to private school or fail to advance in the public schools.
It seems like a situation ripe for a legal and political challenge.
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If they did that, then every child “failing” the test would also have to repeat the grade. With only a third “passing” it would cause chaos in the local schools.
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The silence from the charterite/privatizer crowd is deafening.
They shout “choice” from the rooftops when its serves their marketing strategy but when it comes time to uphold the choice to opt out of an abusive and demeaning ritual—
Not a single word.
The self-proclaimed “education reform” movement aka “corporate education reform” is just a business plan that masquerades as an educational model.
Hyperbole? Sadly, not. Look at its failure to make even a token effort to give substance to one of its putatively most fundamental principles.
That is why, IMHO, it lacks a moral core.
😎
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It just struck my funny bone to picture police hauling off children to holding centers for refusing to pick up a pencil.
Sentence: Probation, with three months of Common Core assignments.
Have mercy your honor, I’d rather serve the jail time.
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Or those pesky soccer moms arrested for keeping their kids home on test days, leaving their darlings parent less.
Social Services would have a hard time finding pro Common Core parents to take in all the now “homeless” tykes.
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You have the right to teach your child creationism.
You have the right to refuse required vacinations for your child.
You have the right to decline the sex education classes taught to children in the public schools.
But you cannot opt your child out of an invalid assessment (not required for advancement).
You cannot teach your child Civil Disobedience.
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“School officials may not be legally empowered to punish students who refuse to take the exams, but in the case of gate-keeping tests, don’t education officials have the legal authority to keep students who refuse from advancing or graduating?”
They certainly do, assuming state law assigns the tests that gatekeeping function. Can students opt out of the NY Regents exams without consequences?
There is definitely a political issue with this. I don’t see much of a legal issue, at least not one that goes beyond reading the relevant state education law and arguing about what it says. There’s nothing controversial about the basic idea that schools can require students to take assessments.
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So are Conn’s Smarter Balanced test “gate-keeping tests”? Not if they are merely collecting data points to evaluate schools & teachers. Gate-keeping tests, if I understand the term, would be those with high stakes for students, i.e., where passing is necessary to pass a course or advance to the next grade or graduate.
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If there are no consequences attached to a test, then students who refuse to take the test will suffer no consequences.
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Sorry FLERP –
As far as NYS is concerned:
At this time, assessments can’t be used to “fail” a student. Fire a teacher – yes, hold back a student – no. Now, that could change, but at this moment assessments are assessments not final exams.
And even final exams don’t necessarily fail a student. At the most they count for 20% of a grade, and sometimes they are a separate score, not a part of the final average.
Take the NYS Regents Exams – a student needs to pass 5 exams in order to graduate. Say that they already passed algebra, they don’t have to take the geometry or trigonometry regents exam. Same with science – once they pass living environment, the earth science, chemistry, and physics regents are optional. (So much for rigor – prior to the “new” policies there was no question that ALL Regents were required, now it’s five and done.)
So FLERP, you need to revise your premise.
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The premise is simply that tests have whatever stakes they have. If the state gives them a gatekeeping role, then the state has the authority to enforce its rule by withholding diplomas or retaining students, and a student can’t just “opt out” of that rule unless the state says he can. If a test counts for just 20% of a grade, then that’s what it counts for. A student can refuse to take the test, but he’ll have to accept that he’ll get a zero on 20% of his grade.
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The problem facing would be graduates in NYS is that two of the *four required Regents exams are now aligned with the Common Core standards – Algebra I administered to accelerated 8th graders and non-accelerated 9th graders – and the 11th grade ELA. Both of these “gate keeping” exams have been developed by Pearson – the same test writing wizards that are producing a 70% failure rate in NY’s 3 to 8 cohorts. The predicted effect on NY graduation rates will be devastating if nothing changes.
*NY has changed its Regents graduation requirement to passing 4 out of 5 Regents exams: Algebra I, Living Environment, ELA, Global History, and American History.
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The “RIGHT” to opt out?
It’s not the state’s kid and not the school’s kid. It most certainly is not the testing consortium’s kid.
That’s your kid.
Period. The End.
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YEP!
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Every parent in every state that has adopted common core has the right to opt out of common core….it is called home school. In these schools they do not accept federal money so they do not have to follow common core. The are currently out performing public schools, charters and magnet schools on standardized test as well as throughout college and the untrained teachers teaching them are not even teaching to the test…dangerous territory if you ask me considering they are nearing the 50% mark of all students in the USA.
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Q
If homeschoolers don’t take standardized tests, how do you know they outperform students in real schools?
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