A few days ago, I posted a letter that James Kirylo and his wife wrote to school officials in South Carolina to explain why they were opting their children out of testing. Kirylo is a professor of education; the letter laid out the reasons why standardized testing was wrong and provided a bibliography of research to support the parents’ decision.
But it turns out that South Carolina does not respect “parents’ right to choose” whether their children take tests.
Read Professor Kirylo’s harrowing account here, appearing as a guest post on Mercedes Schneider’s blog.
He writes:
“On the morning of the first test for my fifth grader, I received a call from the school, from a Dr. Chief Instructional Officer (I will withhold the name) from the Lexington 2 SC school system, informing me that my son was placed in the classroom, and that he was given the standardized test. I was shocked, to say the least.
“First, I never spoke to this Dr. Chief Instructional Officer before. But she certainly let me know in a quick second that she was “Dr. Important” from the school system.
“Second, I expressed my great displeasure, and said it was completely inappropriate for my son to be placed in the class, especially after I was given every indication by the school that accommodations would be made. Third, I said I was on my way to the school to talk further about the situation.
“When I arrived at the school, I saw two police patrol cars in front.
“They were there for me.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“(I will withhold the name)”
Why?
“We are simply following what the state department tells us to.”
The response to that is, “Yes, I understand. Adolf Eichmann was just following orders too.”
Exactly! on both comments!
If this had been recorded, I am reasonably confident a lawsuit would show significant overreach of these school officials with intimidation by the presence of poiice.
I would have recorded it the moment I drove up to the school parking lot. Several years ago my son was administered a test after I had specifically REFUSED in writing. He came home and told me (5th grade at the time 3 yrs ago) that he thought he shouldn’t take it but he didn’t want to confront his teacher or the VP. Next day I arrived unannounced for an angry visit which I recorded. They said that I couldn’t do that, but knew that I wouldn’t stop or leave, so they got their own device to record. Both VP’s wouldn’t say a word because they knew they were wrong and didn’t want to implicate themselves further and possibly face a lawsuit. I angrily expressed my displeasure with their actions. 2 hours later I received a phone call form the Principal apologizing for her employees and her promise to void the test. My son was called into the office the next day and was apologized to by the Principal and the VP’s. The threat of a lawsuit is the only way to hold these people accountable. I’m sorry….I love educators, but if they (and the school administrators) don’t start taking a stand on this, they will continue to be the brunt of all the parental attacks on their profession. This CCRAP has got to stop!
Another fine example of adminimal behavior that should be recorded for posterity. Hope you saved it. Send it to the Smithsonian so that they can preserve such a fine example of adminimal behavior.
What is needed is a central place on the web where the names and actions of all of these people are recorded so that anyone searching on their name (eg, a school district to which they have applied) can easily find out what they have done.
This would undoubtedly save school districts a lot of time and money — and avoid situations like the one in New London, CT where a con artist almost succeeded in getting a superintendent job. The board of Ed only found this out after they had already hired him because a local reporter decided to dig around a little bit.
Perhaps these people would think twice before acting if they knew that their actions would be posted prominently on the web and impact their future job opportunities.
Unfortunately, it was just me doing the talking. They wouldn’t respond and I know they had been instructed by someone (the Principal who was out of the school for meetings both days) to not engage in the conversation as they were gone for a long time looking for tapes and batteries for their 1980’s tape recorder! They were very afraid that I would seek legal action, hence the voiding of the test and an apology to my son for making him feel uncomfortable in his school.
Again, great example of adminimal behavior.
Yeah, I’m an SOB when it comes to discussing the distressing state of public school supposed administrators. Their lack of critical thinking and the complete lack of ethical awareness of their unethical policies and actions that harm students just shows their complete compliant toad attitude which enables them to collect their bloated (at least in regard to the teaching staff) salaries. Their personal expediency trumps justice not only toward parents and students but also teachers. For an adminimal it is impossible to understand the following:
“Should we therefore forgo our self-interest? Of course not. But it [self-interest] must be subordinate to justice, not the other way around. . . . To take advantage of a child’s naivete. . . in order to extract from them something [test scores, personal information] that is contrary to their interests, or intentions, without their knowledge [or consent of parents] or through coercion [state mandated testing], is always and everywhere unjust even if in some places and under certain circumstances it is not illegal. . . . Justice is superior to and more valuable than well-being or efficiency; it cannot be sacrificed to them, not even for the happiness of the greatest number [quoting Rawls]. To what could justice legitimately be sacrificed, since without justice there would be no legitimacy or illegitimacy? And in the name of what, since without justice even humanity, happiness and love could have no absolute value?. . . Without justice, values would be nothing more than (self) interests or motives; they would cease to be values or would become values without worth.”—Comte-Sponville [my additions]
Bravo to you, Lisa M.
I hope that ALL “normal” working parents learn from you.
I wish that all educators will take your example to educate all students and all parents. I love your courage and intelligence. May
My garage door needed to be repaired. So, I called a garage door man to fix my garage door. When he found out I was a teacher, he announced, “My kids DO NOT take those tests.” I knew what he meant by “those tests.” I asked if he OPTED OUT his kids formally. His reply, “NO! Those tests are stupid. I just keep them out of school and take them to work with me. They learn a lot more by seeing me working, and they learn a lot more than going to school to take those ridiculous tests.” I told him that he was a smart man and a good parent for protecting his children.
He also told me that he is NOT wasting him time by asking for permission to OPT OUT his children, for they are his children and one of his jobs is to protect his children from repression.
WISH MORE PARENTS DID THIS.
Thanks for your comments, Yvonne.I LOVE it! Brought tears to my eyes. This would be a good print-out for passing out opt-out info. (some retired teachers & I do this). May I have your permission to print this & pass?
(Of course, I can delete your name.)
&–BTW–love the idea that he’s probably not some Ivy League School graduate–the ones who sit in towers or are out there actively disrupting public education (such as DFERs & too many legislators to name here) by making rules for other people’s children, having done to them what they would never, ever subject their own children to.
Incredibly smart & clever man; his children are very lucky to have such a great dad.
Suggestion: if you know where he lives, nominate him for “Father of the Year” (most small town or suburban papers have these contests)–& that would bring a great deal of attention to this testing travesty, as well, making more parents aware that, yes, they, too can–& should!–follow his lead.
Gee, what happened to school choice? The choice to opt out is not on the menu. NO OPT-OUT FOR YOU! (Imagine the screaming “Soup Nazi”)
What is it about school administrators? I’ve yet to meet a principal who wasn’t drunk on his or her own sense of power. Two of the administrators under whom I have served have maintained their postures of imperious self-righteousness even as they were in the process of running their schools into the ground.
I don’t call them adminimals for nothing!
I definitely understand, Duane, and thanks!
Duane, as you know, I SO agree w/you! That having been said, just about every principal I’ve worked for has been terrific (lucky me).
However–& a BIG HOWEVER–almost every single special ed. admin. I’d worked for was an adminimal–even BELOW the minimal part.
People who thought their you-know-what-doesn’t-stink. People who made parents (& many teachers) feel like less than cockroaches.
Snottiness at I.E.P. meetings & Annual Reviews. Refusals to provide services that were readily available…& on & on.
To this day, these people (like SO man legislators) don’t seem to (or don’t want to) acknowledge the fact that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS,
the taxpayers/parents PAY THEIR SALARIES and last, but certainly not least–they only have jobs BECAUSE they are their to SERVE THESE STUDENTS & PARENTS.
I say GRRRR to these most despicable adminimals, for they are the lowest of the low.
BTW–unfortunately, they continue to exist beyond me active years &, like a strain of virus that becomes even more virulent & stronger, they have gotten worse.
And I will write more about that later.
An example of the oxymoron of a libertarian-GOP police state. The billionaires (Koch, DeVos, etc) pushing libertarianism are free to do whatever they want once that goal has been achieved. Everyone else will be required to become their obedient low wage, always deeply in debt slaves.
Koch and DeVos are right wing nut jobs, liberals or libertarians.
Typo. NOT should have been before LIberals and Libertarians.
Hey, Yvonne, hope you came back to this post, saw my reply to your comment & will respond in the affirmative. Thanks.
Thanks for posting, Diane! I don’t think this story is finished.
I am a teacher and we are to focus on test scores due to No Child Left Behind or now the Every Child Succeeds Act. The testing is linked to federal and state funding. However, in Virginia, there’s no negative effect on children if their parents opt-out of the testing. However, in order to graduate high school passing tge SOL Testing is required. My wife and I have already determined that our children will not take any SOL tests in elementary and middle school unless their taking high school credited classes in middle school. Many teachers don’t like high stakes testing just like parents don’t.