The Opt Out movement continues to grow. In Seattle, not a single junior showed up to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment at Nathan Hale High School.
Earlier this year, teachers at Nathan Hale passed a resolution against in the Common Core Standards test, but SPS Superintendent Larry Nyland threatened teachers with the loss of their teaching licenses if they didn’t administer the test, according to the Seattle Education blog.
Students who opt out were threatened with a zero.
Despite the threats and efforts at intimidation, the students did not show up.
This is civil disobedience in the finest tradition of American history. Think Henry David Thoreau, think Martin Luther King, Jr., think of the Suffragettes, think Nathan Hale.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Supt should fired.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education and commented:
NICE!! 🙂
Proud of those students. Gives me hope for the future that some people will think for themselves. Let’s see how Arne Duncan will threaten these students or the parents of these students. Logically Duncan can’t threaten the Teachers but, again, I don’t see any logic in what Duncan is doing.
Maybe he should be called before congress again so he can show his true colors as a moron that doesn’t know anything about education.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4534666/senator-cassidy-sec-arne-duncan-dyslexia
As if Congress would recognize a moron…
He follows a special branch of logic — Foolean Logic– first introduced by George Foole
here’s how it works:
False AND false = true
false AND true = ask Raj Chetty
Congratulations to all that refused to take the tests!
Can someone from Seattle let us know how these tests impact students, if at all? Grades, graduation, course credit?
Peter, Seattle’s 11th graders have already taken tests needed for graduation. The state’s superintendent- Randy Dorn- is telling families that SBAC “may” be used for college class/placement. SBAC is an 8 hour exam and other college/class placement tests are 2 hours.
I’ve been in touch with college admissions offices and there is a lot of confusion/ conversation regarding the use of SBAC for class placement.
I’ve opted my student out and have no concerns.
Thanks. So it’s the “College and Career Readiness test”. We give ACT and Workkeys.
Which count about as little, it sounds like.
Let’s not forget about the SAT and ACT tests. 11th graders have already taken for college entrance.
Wow.
“The superintendent of the nation’s fourth largest school district, Alberto Carvalho of Miami-Dade public schools in Florida, just announced what he called “the most aggressive decommissioning of testing in the state of Florida, if not in the country.” He said on Thursday that he was cutting the number of district-developed end-of-course exams from 300 to 10 — including all for elementary school — to “restore teaching time” and “respect the educational environment.”
Obviously this is a plot by the teachers unions and/or coddled parents in wealthy suburban districts 🙂
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/23/miami-dade-fourth-largest-u-s-school-district-dumps-290-standardized-tests/
Seriously, though, good job by the anti-excessive testing advocates.
I think he coined a phrase for 2015, vendor-server failure.
Obviously a pawn of Big Labor 🙂
From Long Island and New York City, Nort, South, to Seattle and all points in between the resistance spreads. It will neither be stifled nor dismissed by the powers that be. Kids, parents, teachers, public schools will win!
GREAT! Good for the students. As far as Wall Street is concerned, the students are FOR their PROFIT. SAD. And this is disguised as what is good for the students and this country. RACKET.
I guess they refused to be used.
Are you trying to upstage SomeDAM Poet…..lol
that’s a great one
They used to be refused but now have refused to be used.
Achtung!
General Arne is deploying National Guards as we tweet, and he is planning on dragging every Junior to the testing location, warning parents if they interfere, duct taping kids to chairs & pencils in hands to bubble their #ToxicTests.
God Bless America…or, where is HE?
The data god’s clay feet are exposed and are being systematically shattered into dust. The ‘data is all’ movement is crumbling. The Friedman experiment has failed, as predicted. The people are rising up!
Arne Duncan and Merryl Tisch and so many other of our employees (I’m thinking of Indiana where Glenda Ritz was just removed from her elected chairmanship of the state Board of Education committee) can continue to ignore the warnings at their own peril.
They sound and look much like the mythological response of Marie Antoinette to the pleas for bread for the starving people, saying to us, “Let them take CCSS tests!” while the people bombard the halls of government and tear down the reform movement, piece by piece.
Hurrah for the courageous students! Lead your peers around the nation in an anti-reform revolution! We will follow you.
I am grateful for the individuals organizing the opt-out movement in Seattle. Sadly, the State’s Superintendent – Randy Dorn- sent the below e-mail to families via the school district. Colleges are having discussions regarding the use of SBAC in relation to college placement exams and I love Randy Dorn’s use of the word “may”.
Our children are being used for product development. and are being denied classroom instruction to do so. Very sad that our elected officials feel it ok to volunteer our children for the use of product development/ profit. I am more than disappointed that Seattle’s Superintendent- Larry Nyland- feels it ok to mimic the messaging that comes from the testing consortium. With the exception of Director Patu and Director Peters, the rest of the board have remained mute and have not told the public that their children are being used.
Here is the message from Randy Dorn:
Dear Seattle Public Schools eleventh-grade family,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn has asked all school districts to share a message with high school juniors and their families. His letter addresses the state-mandated Smarter Balanced assessments and how scores may be used. Please click HERE to read the letter in English. It is also available in these languages:
Chinese | Khmer | Korean | Punjabi | Russian | Somali | Spanish | Tagalog | Vietnamese
Additionally, last week, colleges in five states agreed to join those in Washington in viewing Smarter Balanced scores as an optional measurement of college readiness. That means students who elect to present a score report to colleges showing Level 3 or 4 scores may be exempt from taking remedial courses. Read more HERE.
Seattle Public Schools offers more details about the state assessments on our web page at http://smarterbalanced.www.seattleschools.org.
Thank you.
Just curious, how many kids in the Junior class?
Another stern lecture from Arne Duncan, to parents:
“I’m going to stop you,” Duncan said. “How much testing at the federal level is K through 2nd grade?”
She wasn’t sure.
“Facts are important,” he said before moving to the next protester.”
I wonder if he mentioned that the Obama Administration pushed teacher ranking in 40 states thru RttT and the teacher rankings are dependent on children taking standardized tests.
Facts are important.
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/04/23/duncan-meets-common-core-protesters/26279425/
I stand with them in spirit and wish my district would do the same!
After all the good things the labor movement has done for this country – the 8 hour day, vacations, pensions and Social Security, expanded civil liberties, etc – I cringe to see my union mis-leaders fail to protect their members and public education, and collaborate with those who would destroy both.
Thankfully, some teachers are waking up, and parents and students are filling the leadership vacuum.
Randi Weingarten and her lap dog, Michael Mulgrew, are on the wrong side of the issue, the wrong side of history, and should be ashamed of themselves.
Cool
Sent from my iPad
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This was always the obvious challenge to this insanity. I have read of repercussions for opting out, but students could always just show up for the test and not answer questions, or deliberately give wrong answers, etc. The People have all the power in this debacle. Let the Idiots see themselves for what they are.
I just filed my sophomore daughter’s opt out form–she is in Running Start, so that’s an obvious reason why to opt out, so she won’t miss her college classes. The secretary received it politely with an “Oh, I think you’re the first one” and a promise to have the appropriate administrator send me a signed copy. I also filed one for my sixth grader, and spent the first test session on an outing with him.
Today my daughter found out that a group of sophomores at her high school are organizing an opt out of as many as they can muster of the SBAC tests! She said they had done their homework and were ready to justify their decision. It’s encouraging, as I haven’t yet been able to find anyone who’s opting their kids out here in Whatcom County, or heard any teacher talk opposing the tests (I’m a secondary substitute teacher).
Best story today! Congratulations, Seattle students! Now–can you make this news available to all of your peers all over the U.S., so that they’ll do the same?
In ILL-Annoy, for example, we still have weeks to go on testing. I’ve been part of a group passing out opt-out leaflets & explaining this option to both parents & students
(who didn’t know they could opt out), & people are very interested. However, this is exactly the great thing about social media, & kids listen best, I think, to their peers, especially since you’ve already had the experience & no consequences. You go, guys!
Hundreds of Venice HS students in LA opted out this week, partly out of annoyance at spending 8+ hours on a test that is meaningless, partly because the SBAC testing interrupts preparation for AP tests, which the students do take seriously. Wisdom of crowds, perhaps?
It’s great to see students taking action! By the way, I just finished your book, “Reign of Error” for a class in my M.A.T. program at Western Carolina University. I was incredibly moved and inspired by it. Thank you for the work you do.
I’m curious what other states in addition to Massachusetts have passing a standardized test as a requirement for graduation.
Kay in Massachusetts