The final figures for opt outs were released in Montclair, New Jersey. 42.6% of students did not take the PARCC test.
That is quite a protest against Common Core and high-stakes testing, against the Bush-Obama agenda.
The opt-out totals were most pronounced at Montclair High School, where 68 percent of students refused to take the test. In contrast, at the low end of the scale, only 7.5 percent of students at Watchung Elementary School chose to opt-out of the PARCC.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I just join thus blog. Is anyone keeping a list of the percentage of students opting out by district across various states? Please direct me to the appropriate place.
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Global vision. Check the website of United Opt Out and NYSAPE
I saw a lawn sign to Opt Out just up the street (in a wealthy suburb). The assessments start next week after Easter Break.
Ellen #CantWaitToSeeTheStats
Question. Is it possible in NJ to opt out of the second round of PARCC after taking the first?
Why not? Send a letter to principal.
This is really cool! I didn’t realize when I was a student that I was not obligated or required to take tests in order to progress to the next grade. It’s awesome that students are learning about their rights and taking a stand!
Montclair New Jersey where the median household income is $126K. This blog frequently criticizes those who make their money on Wall Street. I wonder what industries generate the wealth of Montclair?
The average income in Upper Montclair is a hell of a lot more than $126K.
Would there have been any criticism or analysis of the Common Core testing without parents raising red flags?
Who would have looked at the tests critically? The contractor? The federal or state governments who signed on, invested tens of millions, and promoted the testing?
Who is there TO question this testing besides principals. parents and teachers? Everyone else signed on. Even the PTA is working to promote Common Core testing.
You do understand the difference between median and average, right?
Dienne: a basic, and obvious, point.
I would only add: “You do understand the difference between mode, median and average, right?”
Thank you for the reminder.
😎
And you understand that the opt-out movement in Montclair primarily involves the worried well and well-to-do living on the correct side of Bloomfield Avenue, yes?
Disaggregation: critically important since 1828.
Yes, no reported ELL, 22% FRL. The face of the opt out movement.
I don’t really get this criticism within the ed reform context. I thought the objective was “involved parents” and “choice”
That only counts when one approves of the involvement or choice?
How is this different than “they’re voting with their feet”? How is this different than “parents know what’s best for their child”?
If the stat was “46% of parents took a voucher” or “46% of parents enrolled in the newest charter, decimating Montclair public schools” would there be this disdain?
I’m having a little trouble with ed reformers making the “public good” argument but only regarding policies and schemes they support.
These parents object to the focus on standardized testing in their public schools and they’re being ignored by lawmakers. What would be an acceptable and effective tactic in that situation?
Not sure where you got that figure, nor precisely your point. Census averages & estimates place the figure between 85k-95k; median price of a home 555k, median property taxes 10.6k. Medians no doubt misleading as Montclair (which includes the unincorporated area called Upper Montclair) has a very wide range of income for a town of just 36k.
Was your point that high-income people opt out because they’re against charter/privatization, whereas the poor welcome charters because their public schools are awful? That really doesn’t apply in Montclair. There are no zone schools. There’s just one high school, fed by 100%-magnet elementaries & middles, which creates a mix of income-levels and races throughout the system. All of the schools are rated very highly at sites like citydata.
And the fact that students in such upper middle class choose to opt-out mean how unpopular NJ superintendent is.
It is incorrect to state “the Bush Obama agenda”. A simple Google search proves it.
I support massive student opt outs. The CCSS and high-stakes testing are more than ridiculous…saying this politely.
You think 126K is indicative of Wall Street? Please take that drivel somewhere else. That amount of money is barely considered middle class these days when you truly adjust for inflation and the devaluing of the dollar. Individuals on this blog critique big money do nothing oligarchs not people who are making 126K. Fail but please try again though.
The top 20% of households in the US – barely considered middle class? http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2013/09/29/what-is-your-us-income-percentile-ranking-n1712430/page/full
You left out the remainder of my sentence. What part of when you adjust for inflation and the devaluation of our fiat currency did you not understand? Seriously?
Someone earning 126K is in the top 15% of annual household income. I would call that upper middle class even in the NE people should be able to live comfortably on that income. I don’t think everyone who works on Wall St. is making millions.
It could be there are more than a few people in this town in NJ living above their means so their children can attend good schools. I know that happens where I live and I wonder what the long term social costs of those decisions will be. Perhaps the children will get good jobs and will support their parents during their retirement.
$126,000 is more than the sum I make, but I would not consider it wealthy. A family can live comfortably on that amount, but not extravagantly. I would consider them upper middle class and not competitive with the true upper class who are buying those expensive yachts and living a much more lavish lifestyle. Let’s not target our professionals who work hard for their money. We shouldn’t lump them in with the multi millionaires who are climbing the ladder when these folks haven’t even gotten to the bottom rung. (Just because so many of us are so far away we don’t even realuze the ladder exists).
I know teachers and other middle class parents who struggle to send their children to parochial schools and/or the more elite private ones (if their child can get admittance).
The charters are so appealing to many parents because they feel their child is now getting an elite education free of the riff raff found in the public schools. (Ironically, sometimes their children are the trouble makers) without the price tag.
Breakdown that 15% further and you will see the major discrepancies between the incomes of those in that fall within that interval. The media continues to lie to you about what exactly middle class is and frankly 126K is nothing to write home about. In fact, a middle class life in my estimation is being able to pay your bills while saving for expenses such as college tuition for your kids and having some money left over at the end of all of that. I don’t think 126K gets you that anymore. 126K won’t even let you buy a decent house where I am located so can you say it’s upper middle class? Or is the new upper middle class supposed to rent an apartment for life without ever being able to own a decent home. We are being accustomed to living with less and less unless of course your are a member of the one percent crew who are so quick to point out at every instance just how fortunate and overpaid everyone else is.
Opt out won’t last forever, believe me. They can force students to take tests anytime they want to. Governments like this do things in stages. Think of the common core tests as step “B” or “C”. Step “A” was to blame teachers. It wasn’t hard to convince Americans to turn on teachers. Eventually they will get education where they want it. You just can’t see the final product yet. The end goal (I’m guessing) is a completely privatized “pay to play” system. If you aren’t fairly wealthy already, your kids won’t get much of an education (like most of human history). Most people will realize that they are “serfs” or “slaves” again. Americans are confused about the class system at the moment, and those on top don’t like that. They want “clearer” lines between “us” and “them.” They don’t want to be challenged. I guess poor people (those who can’t pay for private school) will be dumped into militarized charter schools (or just online in mom’s basement- that is most cost efficient). Wait and see…
I agree with you 100%. What’s going on in education is truly frightening.
John.. “militarized charter schools” is only the beginning. These students will then be channeled to the military and used to be frontline troops in manufactured wars.
I’m glad that students are finally becoming aware of their ability to opt out of testing. Testing definitely can have constructive benefits, but it is typically more of a disruption than a benefit.
Opt out will benefit all public schools in Ohio. They got lawmakers attention. I haven’t seen this much interest in (existing) Ohio public schools by lawmakers for the last 15 years. We have committees and legislative studies and a real debate in media. The best part is the debate isn’t dominated by national ed reform groups. The committee on testing here is 90% people who run, work for or use public schools. That’s a change for the better all by itself.
It’s a shame that the only way we could get them to turn their attention to the actual reality in existing public schools was by threatening to withhold test score data, but that’s what happened- cause and effect.
Maybe ed reformers could have promoted Common Core testing as a common good- something that will improve existing public schools, instead of presenting it as another stern, scolding lecture on our lack of “grit” and “rigor” and trotting out the CEO’s to tell the populace we aren’t working hard enough.
They lost me when they rolled out the “imminent threat to national security” part of the political campaign. If you’re setting out to change every public school in the country with little or no public debate, maybe you should offer some positive benefit to the people who use public schools instead of hitting them with a testing regime.
The ed reformers have always thought of the “little people” as stupid – they kept telling us that our schools were failures, thus the inference was that they thought we were all intellectual failures as well… no, most of us didn’t go to Ivy League schools, but we certainly taught many students who did! The ed reformers don’t breathe the same air as we do… They either really believe they are that much more intelligent or they are morally corrupted by greed…
The elementary schools had a much lower opt out rate compared to the HS. I wonder if it is the HS students themselves choosing to opt out and not the parents deciding to opt out their children.
If so, that bodes well for the generation of young people currently in high school. Hopefully they will carry their understanding about tests into their own parenting years.
The Alliance for Quality Ed joins the opt-out movement.
http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/231896/aqe-joins-testing-opt-out-movement/
A truly cringe-worthy piece in US News and World Report written by a Bellwether vane.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/04/07/whats-next-for-the-opt-out-of-common-core-movement-school-choice
And Seattle is expecting plenty more to opt out this time around.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/more-seattle-students-opt-out-of-new-common-core-tests/
John, society largely is what it is and what it most likely will be to some degree, but we have to move more swiftly and keenly against insanity, at the very least as a survival mechanism, and that means greater and greater degrees of equality and fairness.
This says a lot for the students. It is very hard for students to go against the wishes of their teachers. I can understand why the numbers were so low at the elementary. We spend years trying to get them to follow rules and they love to please their teachers and parents…now they are supposed to stand up against all that authority all alone? I congratulate all those who could but sympathize with all those who couldn’t, too.
Why I will opt my kid out.
The curriculum has been not rushed but absolutely gunned to cover questionable standards, resulting in developmentally inappropriate practices all over the place and poor approaches to reaching and truly engaging and supporting kids.
VAM is a total sham, and only in part due to the above. But the above and the ludicrously high stakes involved for all make VAM insidiously and disastrously tragic.
Over-emphasis on standardized testing is the opposite of what is needed in this day and age. That’s one giant poor approach to teaching children and teens.
This is pretty effective advocacy, and these aren’t all “wealthy suburban schools”:
“– A group of 15 Ohio districts and schools have been selected to develop alternatives to Ohio’s state standardized tests.
The Innovative Learning Pilot will allow the schools to develop alternative tests for students to match their specific educational programs. Results of the trial could help shape state testing policies that affect schools statewide.”
Direct result of the opt out activists. Lawmakers never would have budged without the teachers and parents who objected. Hopefully this will benefit ALL Ohio public schools. no matter where they’re located. Good job, public school advocates! 🙂
http://education.ohio.gov/Media/Media-Releases/Ohio-Prepares-to-Study-Alternatives-to-State-Tests#.VSPhvpPxeJk
Can we just be happy they opted out? Does the median income in Montclair factor into this? $120,000 is NOT a lot of money when you are taking care of a family and that is the total household income, with mortgages/property taxes or rent, college tuition and/or student loans, car insurance, health insurance, food, gas, car repair, etc. That doesn’t even take into account credit cards, clothing, and a few perks like going to a restaurant now and again. RENT is ridiculous. EVERYTHING in New Jersey is expensive – aren’t we the most expensive state in the nation? Until you walk in my shoes, please don’t tell me that I’m living the high life; and no, I don’t live in Montclair, but I do live in Jersey and it is no financial picnic.
I never claimed you were living the high life, I did claim that $120,000 would allow for a comfortable life (which I equate with being able to afford rent.mortgage and all the other bills and few perks you mention), but $120,000 is a lot of money to many people – even in expensive NJ (FYI – NJ is not the most expensive state in the US).
I predict that some high schools in Seattle will exceed a 42.6% opt-out rate. Stay tuned.
42.6% is for the Montclair school district.
Montclair HS hit 68%.
Ohio’s old curriculum was developmentally appropriate, and the OAA for my grade level was excellent. It has been hard to watch Ohio blow millions of dollars on such a poor product based on developmentally inappropriate common core objectives. On top of being a poor product based on developmentally inappropriate objectives, the “PARCC Monster” has greedily devoured my precious instructional time. It makes me so sad to see what I used to teach and what my reality is now. It makes me feel awful, yet I have no control over the madness.
To think the PARCC is promoting college and career readiness……what a joke…..students chained to the PARCC will be just the opposite….NOT READY FOR COLLEGE AND A CAREER. The joke is on all of us as the greedy ones run and laugh all the way to the bank. Meanwhile, our children suffer for this unspeakable greed. It is very hard to be a teacher observing the demise of education for all. Parents and local boards must begin to fight back……just like they are beginning to do!!!
Parents had to put an opt-out request into writing for Montclair High School students so that 68% at the high school represents 68% of both parents and their kids deciding together to opt out. My son is a junior and I believe that the percentage of opt-out for just juniors was actually over 70%. An effective opt-out movement benefits all stakeholders in public education, so whether the movement started or is currently being sustained by people of higher income, the result is still positive overall. There is a lot of division in Montclair, both economically and geographically speaking, but what I have seen in this battle was more of a division between public school supporters and education reform people. The battle is ongoing with an anonymous, wealthy education reform group recently formed and apparently raring to jump aggressively into the fray (especially since the staunchest pro-charter member of the Board of Ed is no longer serving and has been replaced by more “enlightened” candidates. For an even fuller account, go to:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/29_03/29-3_karp.shtml
Fifth-grader Rafael Pepper-Clarke’s article was published in Z Magazine for the Web on how students are being spied on by Pearson, a UK text book and common core testing company/
April 7, 2015
Z Magazine
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/is-pearson-another-word-for-stalker/
Is Pearson Another Word For Stalker?
©2015 By Rafael Pepper-Clarke
5th grader
Have you ever worried that your email and social media accounts and even your test scores are being watched? Well now you have a reason. It’s worse than a virus. It’s a company! Pearson is a UK company that monitors their standardized tests and watches almost everything that you do on the internet. If they catch you doing something they don’t like, they’ll try to send you to court or they’ll fine you. Look up Pearson on Google; it says “Always Learning.” Well yeah, that’s true, always learning about us! Pearson is monitoring students, supposedly because they’re cheating on their tests.
According to Bob Braun’s Ledger, Watchung Hills Regional High School district superintendent, Elizabeth Jewett said “the district’s testing coordinator received a call from the state education department saying that Pearson had initiated a Priority 1 Alert for an item breach within our school.” Braun continues, “The unnamed state education department employee contended a student took a picture of a test item and tweeted it. That was not true. It turned out the student had posted–at 3:18 pm, well after testing was over–a tweet about one of the items with no picture. Jewett does not say the student revealed a question. There is no evidence of any attempt at cheating.”
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, demands an end to this type of “spying.” Some parents want to boycott Pearson’s tests. In Oxford Mississippi, Brandon Smith, parent of a 5th grader said, “I never get to see the results of the test; even the schools didn’t see the scores. We have to take Pearson’s word on what the score really was. They won’t let me see the test questions, either. That’s ridiculous.”3
While they watch us, they make millions because they run the common core tests! They don’t care about children, all they want is money, money, MONEY.
“For a five-year contract, Pearson was paid $32 million to produce standardized tests for New York. Its contract in Texas was worth $500 million,” says Alyssa Figueroa in her article on Alternet.4
She reports that 4th grader Joey Furlong was lying in a hospital bed, undergoing a pre-brain surgery screening, when a teacher walked into the room with a number 2 pencil and standardized test for him to take. Shocked, Joey’s father, who was in the room, told the teacher to leave. Why did that happen? Pearson. They don’t care about health, they just want kids like me to take their tests, even if we’re very sick; points out Alyssa Figueroa.
Edward Snowden fought for our right to privacy, which is in the Constitution’s fourth amendment! He said: “Privacy is a function of liberty”. Snowden was a former agent from the NSA. In 2013, he made it to the headlines for leaking TOP SECRET info. When the government found out he leaked it, he ran away to different countries because the NSA was trying to send him to jail just like they did Chelsea Manning, Martin Luther King Jr. , and the Chinese Government sent the artist Ai WeiWei. Right now Edward is stuck in Russia.
When Snowden said “Privacy is a function of liberty,” he was speaking to the NSA, beause just like Pearson, the NSA also stalks people. The NSA watches your online activity, listens to your phone-calls, looks at your texts, snapchat, e-mail, etc. One of my family members made a song:
“You better watch out, you better not pout; the NSA is comingggg to town. They see you when your sleeping; they know when you awake! They know your social secuiiirityy numberrr. So you better be good for goodness sake. The NSA is coming to your town!’’
While the NSA is far worse than Pearson, both still invade our privacy. “Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it’s only victimizing 95% of the world instead of 100%,”said Edward Snowden.
Meaning: It’s not okay to spy on innocent people just to catch a few criminals. Everyone deserves privacy!
Or do you like people watching your private life?
It’s time we protest for our rights and have a strike, or a boycott. Without our right to privacy, we are like animals in a cage being watched.
“I don’t want to live in a world where everything that I say, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded.” –Edward Snowden.
Notes
1 All of this paragraph according to http://www.bobbraunsledger.com/breaking-pearson-nj-spying-on-social-media-of-students-taking-parcc-tests/
2 In an email to all AFT teachers dated March 17, 2015.
3Parents protest PARCC; tell kids to skip test http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2015/03/16/parents-protest-parcc-kids-skip-test/24857925/
4 http://www.alternet.org/education/corporations-profit-standardized-tests
5 This essay was inspired by the @LARGE Ai WeiWei on Alcatraz exhibit.
1 COMMENT
MichaelApril 7, 2015 2:39 pm Log in to Reply
Without going into detail, this is just the beginning. Much more investigation needs to be made about the company. It is becoming, or is already, a dominant force in education.