- Image courtesy of shutterstock.com
In the past few days, I’ve posted a video about the local and national Opt Out Movement and an op ed from a principal in Brooklyn, NY, criticizing the Common Core tests her students took and her inability to talk about specifics because of a state-imposed gag order.
The Opt Out movement is growing, though it’s in its infancy in the Tucson area. Here are some short items about what’s going on, along with links if you’re interested in learning more.
• Three Tucson parents joined Robin Hiller on her radio show, State of Education, to discuss their desire to have their children opt out of the AIMS test. Their portion of the show begins around the 14:30 minute mark.
• An estimated 30,000 New York children in grades three through eight opted out of the state test this spring. That includes about 27 percent of the third through eighth grade students in West Seneca (about 800 students) and at least 6,000 students in Long Island.
• Several hundred Utah children have opted out of the Utah state tests. “The state school board decided Friday not to count students who opt out when calculating school grades, so as not to penalize schools.”
• In March, “over 100 teachers, students, and parents from across the country gathered in Denver for the United Opt Out National Spring Action.” More information at the United Opt Out website.
• Maya Angelou joined 120 other authors of children’s books in writing a letter to Obama challenging the “overuse and abuse” of standardized testing.
• Anyone who wants a taste of the PARCC test, which a sampling of Arizona students will be field testing, can take a practice test.
This article appears in Apr 10-16, 2014.
Thank you, David, for covering this! As a highly-qualified, veteran teacher here in Tucson, I think opting your child(ren) out is an excellent response to the corporate-driven madness that is standardized testing. Here’s a link to a sample opt-out letter (plus legal references and a Spanish version), which parents can cut, paste and edit (from “AIMS” to “PARCC”, etc.) to fit their situation: http://www.fairtest.org/arizona-aims-or-st…
Apparently, though, our friend Tom Horne does not consider testing to be “learning material”, thereby giving the schools/the state a huge loophole.
Gee, We were told back in 2003, that annual testing would lead us to 100% student mastery by 2013. Are you telling us that teaching to the test and testing doesn’t really produce learning? I’m shocked.
The opinion from one of Horne’s assistant AGs that testing is not a “learning activity” which allows parents to opt out of activities they believe to be harmful is extremely weak. (It may be telling that her opinion came in the form of a letter from her to someone at ADE and that Horne has not issued a formal opinion, which would be published and compiled with all formal AG’s opinions.) She relies upon a 1997 AG opinion which in turn relied upon some statutory provisions that have since been repealed. Also, the 1997 opinion did not consider the situation that we face today, where parents have a good faith belief that testing is harmful for their children. The concern in 1997 was whether parents would opt out their kids who might score poorly and thus make the school’s performance look better than it is. In today’s atmosphere of testing mania, the spirit of the statute allowing parents to opt out of learning activities that they deem harmful certainly seems to apply to testing.
TUSD did the easy and cowardly thing by latching on to the letter from the asst. AG, rather than act in the best interests of kids. I suggest interested people listen to the parents on the Hiller show Dave posted. TUSD has forced kids to either refuse the test on their own when they return to school after the testing days or stay out of school for 3 weeks. That TUSD would bully children in this manner is the best evidence I’ve seen that testing mania is sick and out of control.