Troy LaRaviere, principal of Blaine Elementary School in Chicago, recently wrote an electrifying letter urging parents in his school, in his state, and in the nation to OPT OUT!
Now he has written an open letter to Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools, reprimanding her for pressuring students not to opt out.
He writes:
Ms. Byrd-Bennett,
In response to parent and teacher support for opting children out of the PARCC Test, you sent a message to all CPS principals. It states:
“Please be advised that ISBE does not recognize a parent’s right to opt a child out of required student assessments, as there is no law in Illinois allowing this. While a parent cannot “opt a child out,” there may be students who refuse to participate in required state assessments.”
There are numerous faults and inconsistencies in your letter. I attempt to address a few of them here.
“Choice” Hypocrisy
It is pitifully ironic that you, Mr. Emanuel, and ISBE Chairman James Meeks—self-professed proponents of what you call “parental school choice”—would fight so vigorously to deny parents the choice of opting their children out of testing.
Posturing, Bullying and Wasting Learning Time
Your letter states that even if the parent states, in writing, not to test the child, school officials still must present each child with each one of the five sections of the PARCC tests and force the child to refuse each section separately. In April—when the second half of the PARCC is administered—you have directed us to repeat this process with up to 3 sessions. In total we have been directed to force students to verbally or physically refuse the PARCC on up to eight distinct occasions.
Your letter goes on to state:
“It is unfortunate that ISBE’s limited guidance on this matter has placed the burden of refusing the test on students. I believe this is unfair to our students, families, principals and staff. However, we are obligated to follow ISBE’s limited direction to avoid sanctions that would have a devastating impact on our district.”
If you believe it is “unfortunate,” and “unfair” then why are CPS officials forcing children in some schools to refuse not only to the teacher, but to the principal and the network chief? If you believe it’s “unfair,” why was a network chief sent to Mollison School—my elementary alma mater—where the chief forced each student to refuse directly to her; in one case allegedly forcing a fourth grade autistic child to articulate his desire to opt out despite the fact that he’d already made his desire clear when he himself submitted a signed note from his mother?
Then there’s what is alleged to have happened at Taylor school on the far southeast side, where a teacher reported an administrator, “got within a few inches of the face of one young man in the [opt-out] line, and asked him loudly, “DID SHE PUT A TICKET IN YOUR HAND?!!!”, then ordered the teacher to “PUT A TESTING TICKET IN EVERY STUDENT’S HAND AND PUT THEM IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER!”
Although the facts behind both of the above incidents are in dispute, it is noteworthy that the people making the above claims are all parents of low-income minority children—the children our mayor said would “never amount to anything”; the children whose schools he shut down; and the children who he funnels to charter schools where they experience less academic growth than in the public system they came from. Why has CPS added PARCC bullying to the long list of offenses it has committed against these children and their families?…..
CPS has exhibited intense hypocrisy in regard to parental choice. It has bullied children and their families, been deceptive in its repressive framing of the law in regard to opt out rights, and parroted dubious claims about losing funds in relationship to opting out.
As a result, I will be taking the following course of action and call on you to advise all CPS principals to do the same:
Our school will meet its responsibility to administer the PARCC to all students who want to take it. Nearly 80% of our students have already expressed their decision to refuse the PARCC by submitting letters from their parents opting them out of the test. When students handed that opt-out letter to their teachers, that act was an expression of their refusal to take the test. That is enough for me, and it should be enough for CPS and ISBE. No child under my watch, who has expressed his or her decision to refuse the PARCC, will be sat in front of any computer to take it, nor presented with any materials. We will not waste even more learning time by subjecting our students to ISBE’s deceptive fear-mongering and CPS’s hypocritical test-driven political theater.
Respectfully,
Troy LaRaviere
CPS Graduate
Former CPS Teacher
CPS Parent
CPS Principal
Email: TroyLaRaviere@gmail.com
Twitter: @TroyLaRaviere
“…as there is no law in Illinois allowing this….”
Well, there’s no law that allows sleeping in on Sundays either, so I guess that’s illegal too. It’s kind of funny that none of my civics teachers ever told me there has to be a law granting something in order for it to be legal.
Clone this man ASAP! We need thousands more with his courage especially here in Florida!
Yes, this is what we need to hear more of from principals and superintendents: “As a result, I will be taking the following course of action….”
The so-called reformers are bullies who rely on the assumption that fear is contagious.
Let’s hope this Principal’s courage is, as well.
Considering how evil the Board is, how does LaRaviere not get fired? He’s not in a union, and I’m pretty sure principals are at-will employees. Is it just the LSC that keeps him on the job? If so, I had no idea LSCs were that powerful. BBB / Vitale must absolutely despise him.
Looks like Pearson already changed their policy in response to objections from parents:
“Previously, Pearson would take the knowledge that they found from public postings — the student’s state, name and school — and check it against its list of students registered to take PARCC at that school to see if that person was actually scheduled to take the test,” Jacqueline Reis, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, wrote in an email on Tuesday afternoon.
But she said the consortium of states had asked Pearson to stop checking names against its own list of students.”
Probably good parents had the temerity to question some of this instead of blindly rubber-stamping whatever the contractor demanded.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/pearson-under-fire-for-monitoring-students-twitter-posts/?_r=0
BAD PEARSON…BAD PEARSON…BAD PEARSON!
Wow!
There’s one for Diane’s Hall of Fame.
I ❤ this administrator – wish he were mine!
I am glad to see that the owner of this blog likes to feature people that follow the examples set by genuine American heroes:
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
But surely the subject of this posting will be vilified by the MSM that fawns over those leading the self-proclaimed “education reform” movement:
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”
Mr. Troy LaRaviere, I believe you already know Mr. Frederick Douglass.
😎
This courage is now unseen and seemingly forgotten in New Jersey.
Beware of the assault that lies ahead, courage is the reformers greatest fear.
Galton: thank you for your comment, especially “courage is the reformers greatest fear.”
Servility will [as it has already proved to be] only increase the teacher- and public school-bashing.
As has already happened, when so many are beaten down and beaten up by self-proclaimed “education reform”—guess who gets the blame? Above all, public school teachers and staffs and supporters. Why? Because silence is interpreted as consent. *One case in point: LAUSD catastrophes under rheephormista par excellence John Deasy are, quite literally, being blamed by some on precisely those I mention above!*
Speaking only for myself, the majority of people I met while working in a public elementary and high school were doing what they loved. Everyone must make their own choices, but I would ask people to consider what a very dead and very old and very Roman guy said:
“Happy are those who dare courageously to defend what they love.” [Ovid]
And it’s a twofer: what makes those trying to ensure genuine teaching and learning happy, makes the $tudent $ucce$$ crowd unhappy.
Just sayin’…
😎
If Rahm Emanuel wins the election for mayor in Chicago, will this principal lose his job, and has Troy been in education long enough to retire and survive on the pension? That is if Emanuel wins and doesn’t strip the retirement benefits from Chicago’s teachers too.
Bravo and salute to Mr. Troy LaRaviere, principal of Blaine Elementary School in Chicago.
Please allow me to repeat your last sentence in your letter, as follows:
[start quote]
“We will not waste even more learning time by subjecting our students to ISBE’s DECEPTIVE FEAR-MONGERING and CPS’s hypocritical test-driven POLITICAL THEATER.”
[end quote]
IMHO, Principal Troy LaRaviere is a a true educator-warrior who selflessly defends for the SPIRIT LIBERTY in PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Being as a true educator, Principal LaRaviere has fearlessly and selflessly implemented his moral judgment in today “culture of fear” imposed on children from political theater, by:
1) Gently reminding Ms. Barbara Byrd-Bennett, Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools about parental choice of their children in OPTING OUT “INVALID” tests.
2) Respecting the CIVILITY in students’ choices whether it is 20% of students who are curiously taking invalid tests, or whether it is 80% of students who clearly choose and want to opt out “INVALID” tests.
I hope that all other principals across America will awaken their conscience in order to follow Principal troy LaRaviere’s lead in defending for the SPIRIT LIBERTY and in preserving Public Education Autonomy from the hand of all corrupted souls that are in
power and impose fear-mongering on students and teachers. Back2basic