Carol Burris tells the story of the birth of the opt out movement. Contrary to the take in the mainstream media, parents started opt out, not unions. Parents continue to lead opt out. In 2015, the leader of the Néw York State United Teachers, Karen Magee, endorsed opt out shortly before the testing began. The organization and groundwork had already been out in place by parents.
Look for larger numbers of parents opting out in 2016. Thus far, their children have won nothing but more testing and empty pronises.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Politicians are just now waking up to parent and teacher power, and that’s a very good thing!
Districts are intimating and threatening. I have heard from parents in different school districts that if they opt out their child, special services will be taken away. They won’t be able qualify for any awards… The administration attacks the most vulnerable so out of fear they subject their child to the horrendous testing ordeal.
It’s funny how public school parents are sidelined in ed reform. They always set it up as “teachers unions versus reformers”. I get why they would do that for political reasons- evil unions versus saintly reformers is a good frame- but what is sounds like to a public school parent is that we simply disappeared. Any public school advocacy or activism is immediately attributed to “teachers unions”. It’s bizarre, from the perspective of a public school parent. You can be a union opponent, or ambivalent on unions, or support unions in general and that can have absolutely no bearing on how you feel about what’s going on in your child’s school re: Common Core. That’s possible. A lot of what they say seems besides the point to me. Do they want to talk about labor unions or do they want to talk about our public schools?
Their talk of teachers unions as the birthplace of the opt out movement is a bogus smokescreen. And they know it. Just a convenient scapegoat that many non-union people like to take shots at anyway.
“What a tangled web they weave,
when first they practice to deceive.”
As John Lennon said, “Opt out is what happens while you have been busy making other plans” (to install national standards and tests, VAM and fire teachers, destroy unions, close schools, open charters,etc)
I think it is important for me to point out that the intention of the piece was to talk about the tremendous impact that Opt Out has had on public awareness of testing and corporate reform. But the piece was NOT intended to be a complete history–before Long Island Opt Out, as I note in the piece, there was United Opt Out. Its founders were teachers and the spouse of a teacher. Some were parents. They were courageous and outspoken and we all owe them thanks. There are Opt Out movements that are large, and others that are small. Opt out is powerful because it is a collective effort. Peg Robertson tells the story of going back to 2001 http://www.pegwithpen.com/2015/09/some-thoughts-about-history-of-opt-out.html. It is worth the read! Thanks, Peg.
I can’t wait!
I think the Elia/Cuomo push back against opt out will be as commenter Mary DeFalco (2:09PM) observed: districts under pressure from State Ed threatening to take away services, not allowing kids to get awards, etc. I expect a big ramp up there and also against teachers. Any teacher who is anywhere near a kid opting out will be threatened with a 3020A. I’d also expect them to have a few very well broadcast and publicized 3020A hangings to scare the commoners. Watch for this.
Skipping all of the ethical horror that districts, under state Ed pressure, will move towards…..all of the cataloging of how it hurts kids etc….I do see some optics problems emerging for our side in the next year.
What happens when only the monied, enabled, whiter districts are the opt out districts? I’d imagine that Elia and state Ed would have a field day with a more circumscribed, more legible class/race division with opt out. I know this stuff is talked about ad nauseum, but who is going to have the louder, simpler, clearer, messaging on that? I’m nervous that it won’t be us.
Opt out needs to explode everywhere this school year.
It’s a wonderful amazing organic movement that the reformer side didnt count on. Without it organized teachers would have 0 (zero) hope at this point. It’s just sad that they aren’t getting any help.
On the flip side, can it be demonstrated at all that parents pushed for charters, achievement districts and so forth . . . anywhere?
Where are parents clamoring for charters? I see more parents protesting charter takeovers and expansion. Of course, if they are poor, minority parents, they will be ignored.
That is an excellent question, Retired Teacher, and one I have a bit of insight about here in NYS. I am aware of several genuine grass-roots groups of parents attempting to establish charter schools, but these are not the proposals that sail through the SED or the SUNY approval process the first, second, or even a third time around. The majority of proposals that basically get a free pass are the Success Academies and similar corporate-type ventures in NYC and the large cities. However, this year it’s becoming increasingly evident that there are fewer proposals for the upstate cities, and of those submitted, very few have been successful so far.
According to what I’ve read, what some call the “mom-and-pop” charters also get short shrift under self-styled “education reform.”
Thank you for your comments.
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And Magee wasn’t endorsing or prompting teacher involvement so much as supporting the statement of frustration and resistance parents were making. It not only put NYSED and political leaders in a bind (where was THEIR support and responsiveness to parents, after all?), it has forced them into these acrobatics of pretending they care, posing publicly as the consummate educators that will teach parents how vital (*cough*) these tests are to knowing how well children are doing, and initiating the grand distraction of one more collection of yes-men and women to look closely at the standards and tell us all what Cuomo wants to hear. Things will be getting interesting, especially if leaders continue to ignore citizens.
Duncan is resigning! Perhaps the unfiltered truth is reaching Obama’s ears.