New Jersey: Thousands of Students Opt Out of PARCC

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1. biochemlife says:

   March 2, 2015 at 9:38 pm

   So will this make it on the national news on TV. I doubt it.

   Reply
2. Laura H. Chapman says:

   March 2, 2015 at 9:48 pm

   Don’t be surprized if there is real snowball with savvy twitters among high school students. U.S. News has a report on refusals.

   Reply
   • Erin says:

     March 3, 2015 at 7:24 am

     Students and teachers are the two groups who really know and feel how awful these tests are and what terrible things this test,test,test mentality is doing to education. The students will lead the way. Teachers are too afraid. Well, not all of us are too afraid, but the fear looms large. Our protests are whispers. The students’ protests are roars .

     Reply
     • Heather says:

       March 4, 2015 at 6:15 pm

       Teachers are only afraid because our jobs are on the line!

3. Julie B says:

   March 2, 2015 at 9:49 pm

   Yes, yes we did! Thanks for posting this, Diane.

   Reply
4. joe prichard says:

   March 2, 2015 at 9:52 pm

   national news? where ..who……I am blasting my local media for refusing to report what I am saying is a national story…..I need to know, to reinforce that point.

   Reply
5. Donna says:

   March 2, 2015 at 10:02 pm

   I am with you; yet, Hespe spins: http://www.nj.com/education/2015/03/parcc_starts_nj.html#incart_river

   Reply
6. Charles says:

   March 2, 2015 at 10:29 pm

   What a HUGE WASTE OF LIMITED TAX DOLLARS and student learning time? This test will not do one thing to improve each students education! The PSAT, SAT and ACT TESTS are used to determine college readiness. Career Readiness has not even been defined yet. Why are we accepting this fraud!?

   Reply
7. Brooke Lincoln says:

   March 2, 2015 at 10:48 pm

   Ravitch readers – contact the education reporter at local TV network affiliates, asking them to air the stories and feel them to their national affiliates. Tell them happening in multiple locations. It’s a story ‘with legs’ that keep going and growing. Include Fox affiliates. Common Core related stories are news to them due to Bush candidacy and now Christy connection to N.J. school. If national affiliates receive 10-20 calls from local affiliates, they’re likely to report the stories.

   Reply
8. John a says:

   March 2, 2015 at 11:50 pm

   Quite amazing and wonderful that, increasingly, students are conscious of the destructiveness of PARCC and resisting its imposition. Student resistance is spreading like a prairie fire; they students have come to realize that they can’t trrust school administers. They must take action. Students are back control of their educational lives and all the money, bogus PR and oppressive tactics and manipulative tactics can’t stop them. You want to know what will finally stop PARCC dead in its tracks? Students. What happens when school boards and administrators give a test and students don’t show up?

   Reply
9. wolfman says:

   March 3, 2015 at 12:17 am

   Opt out!!!!!!!!!!

   I just met with the principle at Rooney Ranch Elementary today in Colorado and she too believes this test is flawed! More importantly she believes the system is flawed and tried to opt her school out of the testing, unfortunately the district would not let her.

   So here’s the deal…Opt out and quit letting these gutless liberals drive your children’s future in the ground. According to the principle not only is it unfair to the students but it’s unfair to the teachers. Are we all brain dead?

   Stand up for the children! Opt Out!

   Reply
   • Bilgewater says:

     March 3, 2015 at 1:38 am

     I read somewhere that some school corporations are actually telling their teachers that opting out is illegal…but *refusing* the test is not. Has anyone seen this confusing distinction?

     My corporation told us not to mention opting out to parents because it could cause us to lose funding for our school.

     Reply
     • Alicia says:

       March 3, 2015 at 4:14 am

       Wow, I’m a “gutless liberal” and I’m opting out. This movement is NOT about who is conservative or liberal. It’s about doing what is right for kids, our teachers, and our schools. When you name call and point fingers at the wrong people it detracts from the cause.

     • crunchydeb says:

       March 3, 2015 at 6:02 am

       Thank you Alicia – another Left-Leaner here also opting out. This isn’t an R vs D issue – kids are kids.

     • Ken Watanabe says:

       March 3, 2015 at 2:37 pm

       Many so-called “school corporations” don’t know about law. They don’t even care what it is all about.

     • cary444 (@cary444) says:

       March 14, 2015 at 6:05 pm

       That is true here in IL. They actually said opting out is illegal but that kids can refuse…with or without parental permission. So, just how do we get that note passing started (psst johnny said we can just say ‘refuse’ and then we get to go sit in the library and we don’t have to take this silly test…whoo whee).

   • Dienne says:

     March 3, 2015 at 6:12 am

     The conservatives aren’t any less in favor of constant testing, they just don’t want a national testing program (especially not one mandated by that “librul” Obama) because, well, communism, I guess. Remember it was GWB who signed No Child Left Behind which mandated that all children be tested in grades 3 through 8.

     Reply
10. Arnie says:

    March 3, 2015 at 5:43 am

    Blog: Little Falls Opts not to Opt-Out
    http://blogs.northjersey.com/blogs/korotkin/comments/little_falls_opts_not_to_opt-out/

    Reply
    • Duane Swacker says:

      March 3, 2015 at 1:03 pm

      Arnie, is that you, the Duncster?

      Reply
11. FLERP! says:

    March 3, 2015 at 6:20 am

    When I think about this over the long term, I sometimes wonder, what historical precedents are there for reducing the number of assessments of anything capable of being assessed, or for reducing the amount of data-based analysis performed on anything that generates data? Nothing obvious jumps out at me.

    Reply
    • Chiara says:

      March 3, 2015 at 7:16 am

      I think health care is the best example.

      They went nuts increasing testing over decades and there was eventually a recognition that it was wasting money, there was a profit motive to adding more and more tests, and it was (sometimes) harmful to patients.

      There was some of the same resistance to fewer tests, too. The fear was they would miss something unless they tested everyone.

      “Excessive testing costs $200 billion to $250 billion (per year),” Dr. Steven Weinberger, CEO of ACP said in an interview from his office in Philadelphia. “There’s an overuse of imaging studies, CT scans for lung disease, overuse of routine electrocardiograms and other cardiac tests such as stress testing.”

      In an article published last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the ACP cited 37 clinical situations where screening did not promote health and might actually hurt patients.”

      http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/16/us-overtreatment-idUSTRE81F0UF20120216

      Reply
      • Tim says:

        March 3, 2015 at 9:36 am

        Your Reuters link buries the lede: over-testing is driven to a large degree by patients who won’t take “no” for an answer, as well as doctors who are terrified of being sued (can you imagine a world where teachers and school districts could be sued for malpractice?). I guess there is a decent comparison to be made between the test prep and the excessive medical testing that occur in the name of CYA, though.

        It’s also important to remember that even though in the aggregate the medical community may be overtesting, testing is nevertheless saving, extending, or improving the quality of millions and millions of lives every year. Smarter and more efficient testing is far from being the same as no testing.

        That’s what parents want, anyway. Tests that are fair, tests that aren’t too long, and tests that align to what was taught. By far the most important thing, of course, is greatly minimizing or eliminating the real destructive force, which is not the tests themselves, but the months and months of test prep that lead up to them.

    • Mom from District 2 says:

      March 3, 2015 at 7:17 am

      Well, Microsoft did end stack ranking.

      Reply
      • Titleonetexasteacher says:

        March 3, 2015 at 8:57 am

        Yes, it was not good enough for Gates for his own company. Like these tests and the cc is not good enough for his kids.

    • Chiara says:

      March 3, 2015 at 7:30 am

      It’s alarming to watch education take none of the lessons we’ve learned from health care and apply them. Over-testing is one, and this is another.

      The big issue when they reformed health care was “fragmentation”- we have a “fragmented” health care system.

      “Focused laboratory research is needed to understand the behavior of discrete treatments for discrete diseases, but improving health is fostered by a different science, one that considers the behavior of multiple interacting factors which advance the health of whole people within communities. It is the poor generalist health professional who considers only the disease and not the whole person. It is the poor policy maker that designs health care systems that deal only with discrete diseases and fails to create environments that support creative interaction between different parts of the system”

      Sound familiar? 🙂

      Reply
12. GE2L2R says:

    March 3, 2015 at 7:31 am

    It did!

    http://www.cbsnews.com/news/parents-join-nationwide-boycott-of-common-core-exam/

    “There is a distinction between what is really critical thinking and what is setting a kid up to fail,” said Blaine.

    But here’s how they ended the story:

    “But former Millburn, New Jersey, school superintendent Jim Crisfield says opting out should not be an option.
    “We cannot have the concept of opting out applied to public education more broadly,” said Crisfield. “This isn’t an a la carte operation.”

    Many states prohibit or discourage opting out of the assessments. A handful, including California and Utah, have legislation that allow it and 19 states have introduced legislation to either halt or replace Common Core.”

    Reply
    • Chiara says:

      March 3, 2015 at 7:42 am

      I agree with him on opting out more generally. Public schools aren’t a la carte and the truth is public schools can’t provide everything to every child or parent.

      I think opt outers have to make a distinction that this is a protest. or they’re vulnerable to this “a la carte” comparison.

      It’s one of my problems with it, personally. I can’t square it with my general approach to public school, which is sometimes the individual has to give way to the good of the broader group. That doesn’t apply to “needs”, so not civil rights, etc. but I do think it applies to “wants”.

      Part of what I tell my children about school is they sometimes get what they want, but not always. There are other people there who also have “rights” (needs, wants). I think it’s one of the benefits of public schools, actually. I think learning that has value.

      Reply
13. Chiara says:

    March 3, 2015 at 7:59 am

    It would be helpful to me if the proponents of testing would be specific. When they say they need annual testing to track groups, do they mean annual testing in every subject?

    Annual testing in english, math, science and social studies is different than annual testing in english and math. Would they commit to one test a year in english and math, 3rd thru 12th grade? Is that what they’re (supposedly, assuming good faith) asking for?

    I don’t even know what they want, or where they would compromise. All I’ve heard have been defenses of “testing” as a concept and then a quick shift to blaming someone else for excessive testing.

    Reply
    • Titleonetexasteacher says:

      March 3, 2015 at 9:02 am

      Chiara,

      As an English teacher for both 0th and 10th EOC, the only tests that matter in TX for “accountability” and graduation, it still corrupts. My kids take 12 tests a year to create “data” to “drive my instruction” to help them pass these tests. We have missed 1/3 of the curriculum this year, because I am being forced to hammer only the parts that are on the tests. The ed center literally does walk throughs to check our frames. My kids are missing out on sonnets and many other important literary genres to make room for EOC tested genres. It is a travesty.

      Reply
      • Chiara says:

        March 3, 2015 at 9:47 am

        Thanks. I’m not a teacher and I’m not in my son’s school so I don’t know the actual, practical effect of the testing.

        I don’t buy the “1% of the year!” claims, because I think it’s silly to measure from the point the students enter the testing room to the point they leave. It’s the same kind of legalistic, narrow thinking I see in a lot of ed reform claims.

        For my family, my whole struggle to decide may be ending, because my husband is rapidly reaching “fed up with testing” point and if he wants our son to opt out next year that would (obviously) be a big factor towards “opt out”.

        He thinks they’re tested too much in my son’s school, bottom line. If they don’t fix it he wouldn’t have any qualms about pulling our son out.

14. Chiara says:

    March 3, 2015 at 10:19 am

    Michael Petrilli @MichaelPetrilli · 1h 1 hour ago

    I wish I could #optout of some of the stops on this bus route. But that’s the deal with public transportation. @ChadAldeman @amandaripley
    0 replies 1 retweet 6 favorites

    It’s kind of fun to watch the “choice!” caucus in ed reform rediscover the “commons” argument in public education when it suits their purposes.

    The same people who set up public schools as a contract provider to consumers and have been selling that idea for 20 years are now arguing there’s a public good, but only where testing or the Common Core are concerned- in other words, the policies and practices they back.

    They may be having difficulty selling this because they took the “public” out of public schools a long time ago, when their objective was to sell vouchers and charters.

    Reply
15. Chiara says:

    March 3, 2015 at 10:28 am

    “Tim
    March 3, 2015 at 9:36 am

    Your Reuters link buries the lede: over-testing is driven to a large degree by patients who won’t take “no” for an answer, as well as doctors who are terrified of being sued (can you imagine a world where teachers and school districts could be sued for malpractice?). I guess there is a decent comparison to be made between the test prep and the excessive medical testing that occur in the name of CYA, though.”

    The opt outs are a symptom. It means people in government aren’t listening. If my employees walk out I can do one of two things: I can jeer at them for walking out and being “hysterical” or I can ask myself why they had to take such an extreme step before I listened to them. I would go with Option Two.

    I don’t believe that leaders in ed reform take this seriously. I don’t mean you as an individual. I mean the people who set policy and enforce it.

    The reason I don’t think they take it seriously is they are STILL making fun of these protests. I think that’s arrogant and unresponsive.

    They may not like it, but “public schools” means one has to deal with the public. They can’t pull out the “public good” card only when it suits them.

    Reply
16. Chiara says:

    March 3, 2015 at 10:42 am

    “Tim
    March 3, 2015 at 9:36 am
    It’s also important to remember that even though in the aggregate the medical community may be overtesting, testing is nevertheless saving, extending, or improving the quality of millions and millions of lives every year. Smarter and more efficient testing is far from being the same as no testing.”

    Here’s what I would consider a good faith, respectful concession on testing. Arne Duncan comes out and admits “my focus on measuring teachers increased testing on your kids, and I will admit error and change direction on that”

    I see the inability to do that as defensive. They are in love with these theories and they cannot budge without the fear that the whole “movement” comes crashing down.

    You know who else could come out and admit error? Jeb Bush. His policies also promote increased testing. They have to compromise or this is too one-sided and not credible to me.

    Reply
17. Lloyd Lofthouse says:

    March 3, 2015 at 12:57 pm

    Should we expect some states and the feds to pass the PARCC testing laws that mandate testing or prison time for parents and children who do not comply with big brother Arne Duncan and his master Bill Gates?

    Instead of sending people to prison for smoking a little pot, they will end up behind bars fro refusing to take the test—entire families who will lose their jobs and homes.

    The U.S., did it during World War II with Japanese Americans and history tends to repeat itself.

    Reply
18. Mamamia says:

    March 3, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    Our son is special needs. Took NJASK once to get district to stop nagging & prove a point that he can’t test. Well he failed the test. Was totally stressed the entire weeks & it took a full week to get only 1/2 done. Now they’re pushing the park test he supposed to take it tomorrow. Thing out by sending him in the late in the day. The three days that he takes the test were going to keep doing this. Now they’re threatening to force him to take a make up exam whether we like it or not because they have a large window of dates after the test where they can continue to test students who may have missed the test nothing I say to them seems to make them want to back down. This is absolutely rediculous! I’m staying firm on this test is a complete waste of time for regular education kids it’s even more of a waste of time for special education kids.

    Reply
19. Alissa Pisack says:

    March 4, 2015 at 3:38 pm

    The PARCC testing is useless as an evaluation of teachers and students. In New Jersey we have Map Testing. It is taken at the beginning of the year, it is computer based, the questions get progressively harder as the student shows proficiency in the subject. The scores are immediate and areas to be worked on are known. At the end of the year, the students take the Map Test again. This shows how much the student has learned throughout the year. This is the only testing they need to evaluate students and teachers. It is the only one that actually shows where they started and ended in that year’s education.

    Reply

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