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Last year, a majority of juniors at Palo Alto High School did not take the state tests. State law protects the right of students to opt out. The tests have no value other than to prop up the testing regime.
Now the district superintendent, in an all-Out effort to break the opt out, is pulling out all the stops and offering prizes and awards to students who take the tests.
“All juniors at Palo Alto High School will be required to participate in the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress this year, in an effort by the school board to assemble a higher participation rate, according to Supt. Don Austin.
“The Palo Alto Unified School District is offering incentives to students who complete all of the CAASPP examinations next week, according to an email forwarded to Paly parents by Assistant principal Tom Keating, from Superintendent Austin.
“Through a raffle, students will be able to win student parking permits for the 2019-20 school year (which usually cost up to $100), athletic passes for the 2019-20 school year, 2018-19 yearbooks or VIP parking passes to the 2019-20 graduation ceremony.
“Regardless, all students who complete all of the testings will win one item of Paly “swag,” according to the letter.
“Last year, only 40 percent of Paly juniors completed the test, compared to the 95 percent required participation rate, Austin stated in an email to parents on Feb. 28.
“In the email, Austin stated that although parents are highly encouraged to permit students to take the exam, parents or guardians are able to submit a written request to the principal of their student’s school to excuse their child from any or all parts of the CAASPP summative assessments.
“Compared to Henry M. Gunn High School, which had a parent-guardian exemption percentage that fell from 64 percent in 2016 to 28 percent in 2017, Paly has a previous history of having an abnormally low attendance record compared to other schools, according to an article by Palo Alto Online.
“In the email, assistant principal Keating also stated that one of the major benefits of taking the exam is state recognition and awards upon graduation. Students are able to earn three additional awards or seals with the completion of the exam.”
The local paper claims that the tests are “mandatory.” But they are not.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If the students win the prizes, is the value amount taxable?
Advertisers usually state in their disclaimers that buying the product is not necessary to be entered into the drawing. Is Palo Alta following best practices for the offering?
The cars of the students who win the parking passes may end up with some notes attached like, “sell-out”, “oligarch toadie”, “DeVos dipsh_t”.
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Whether by carrot or stick, schools are resorting to any and all ways to entice or force students to comply. Schools have gotten the message that they must feed the data monster. Without data states do not have a way to punish schools, teachers or students, and this is a good thing. That is why opt out will work if enough students refuse the test. Maybe it is time to challenge the legitimacy of the tests in the courts. Why should anyone believe the results of politically motivated tests that have never been validated as legitimate? At the very least these tests should be subjected to the same level of scrutiny as other standardized tests have been in the past.
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Having just finished reading Noliwe Rooks’s book Cutting School, which prompted me to reread some passages from The Death and Life…, it occurred to me that one book that needs to be written, one that is unfortunately way beyond my abilities, is the story of how state and local officials, elected board members, school administrators, and many teachers and parents who are in cahoots with policy makers to not only implement, but also promote these destructive high-stakes testing policies. It is easy to see and has been well documented how and why those who profit off these criminal policies do so. It is less understandable why those who ostensibly don’t do. This is where Duane’s views and mine overlap, for a change.
I have quoted Friedrich Dürrenmatt often because his writing often gives voice to the complex underbelly of political behavior from the top to the bottom of humanity. One that applies here is a passage from The Assignment, when he noted “nonterrorists were also capable of atrocities, Auschwitz, for instance, was not the work of terrorists but of state employees…” I continue to be shocked at the unquestioning acquiescence of my local school board, school administrators, some teachers, and many parents to the ills imposed on education in my state. I hope someone with the requisite talent and ability, perhaps a Jeff Bryant, will study this.
Somewhat related to this, is anyone out there aware of instances of companies like Pearson paying kickbacks or provide perks to local school board members, school administrators, or teachers? Since I learned my politics in Louisiana, I tend to suspect crass corruption can be found at the bottom of every bad political decision. Can anyone cite such examples or point me to a source that might confirm my suspicions?
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Greg,
The big testing companies have a large stable of lobbyists. They attend every meeting at the federal level and in key states where their interests are involved. I don’t know if they make campaign contributions but it would not surprise me if they do. Big for-profit charter chains do and so do virtual charter chains. In one instance, I discovered that a virtual charter disguised its campaign gifts by having every employee give $1,000 or $2,000 to a single state pol.
In Texas, Pearson won a $500 million contract. It’s lobbyist was Sandy Kris’s, architect of NCLB, who also wrote frequent op-Ed’s for Texas newspapers about the value and importance of standardized testing. His own children went to a private school that did not give the tests. To this day, he defends NCLB although Texas no longer has a Pearson contract.
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Greg,
You’re on to something. This is a deep question. There is something in humanity that loves an orthodoxy, a marching order, howsoever inane it may be. That’s what I see. People abhor doubt, alternatives, decision making. They cling to Common Core and the testing because it offers a clear-cut To Do list. There is some debate about it on Diane’s blog, but on the ground in most districts there is no dissent.
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I would add Common Core and the testing also offer a set of talking points that make one seem like a slick, up-to-date education professional; i.e. it’s great for appearances. Engaging in debate implies we might not know what we’re doing. That doesn’t look good. Humans want to look good.
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Most people go along with conventional wisdom, in lockstep. They are too busy to think differently.
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I am not clear on what, if anything, Kamala Harris has done in the last year, including the November election….I thought she was helping to fight against the charters and some of their leaders……On morning Joe today, our Missouri genius of political insights, Claire McCaskill pointed out that Kamala has not been in a mano to mano bloodbath with anybody (presumably she had a miraculous win over her opponent in 2012—the guy who had to explain about legitimate rapes.) She and Mika were offering reasons why the latest California poll from quinnepiac had biden in the lead with 26%, San ders with 18 and Kamala with 17. No one else was in double figures….a friend told me…..so what…..she is from California. I wonder how enthused California women are about Biden and Sanders. I would guess less than California men, especially white men
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Don Austin was the Superintendent in Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified for 4 agonizing years. He was known as the District bully.
Evidently he is doing this again in Palo Alto.
Sorry Palo Alto- keep opting out!
Thanks for posting this Diane!
NO one can be forced to take a CA Standardized test due to the CA Ed Code
https://www.cta.org/~/media/Documents/Issues%20%20Action/Testing%20Standards/optout%20flyer.pdf?dmc=1&ts=20190410T0953129732
Sample Parent Letter
It’s all available @ cta.org/optout
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I notice that his “bribe” is also really just an entry into a raffle. Woopie. They might get some other “swag”, like maybe a pencil or pen with the school logo? Besides the utter waste of time of these tests, and the distraction from real learning, I am most disturbed by the continued invasion of our student’s privacy and the data mining associated with these on-line tests adaptive tests. These tests are not results are not anonymous like ye old paper tests. The test makes have full access to the student’s identifying data. Also the test consortium also gets full access to all student data in the CalPads data systems. Why would any parent want to give all of their child’s private data to anyone like that?
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So now the deformers are “creating kids who become adults” willing to SELL THEIR SOULS for trinkets. Good one…NOT.
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Wouldn’t it be a justified slap in the face for that superintendent (a toady and idiot in my thinking) if more juniors refused to take the test because of his obvious attempt at bribing them as if they can be bought? Most of these adolescents are not as stupid as the superintendent cleary is.
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Hi Diane, I teach in Lockport, NY which is 20 minutes east of Niagara Falls and 30 minutes north of Buffalo. Our district’s Middle School (7th and 8th grade) has been identified by the state because of high opt out numbers last year. The district had to develop a plan to decrease the number of opt outs this year so they came up with a real winner. The kids that take the New York State assessent will be exempt from their final exam in June. I thought you might see the connection to bribery. Or outrageous. Kim VanSchoonhoven 5th Grade teacher and proud.
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Bribe, threaten, intimidate. Not the way school officials should act. The tests are pointless.
I hope your opt rate goes higher!
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Is it any wonder people bribe their way to college? What if somebody offered prizes not to take state tests? Would that be ethical? No, because offering the prizes is unethical. This Bozo should go to jail. One would expect a higher standard of behavior from a public servant than rich hollywood stars bribing colleges.
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All of this happening while other districts and schools in the Bay Area deemed “low performing”, especially compared to Palo Alto schools, have a high test attendance rate. Those schools are then penalized for their low performance while 70% of graduates from Palo Alto High are accepted into UC schools. These tests are so meaningful!
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Opt Out. Strike.
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Don Austin should donate the cost of these bribes from his likely inflated salary! Ask him if the Common Core Curriculum and CAASPP tests have been tested or validated, as I did in PV. We all know why he is now in Palo Alto.
Leave the kids alone already. There is already so much stress in high schools planning and studying for the ACT / SAT, and trying to get into a college.
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Worse than the bribes, I have heard from one parent that their child’s teacher told their class that she would not write a college letter of recommendation for any student who did not take the test.
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