Can parents have kids opt out of FCAT?
A coalition of teachers is urging parents across the country to opt their children out of standardized tests.
Ceresta Smith with her daughter Aisha Daniels, 16, an 11th-grader at Krop Senior High School. Aisha opted out of the FCAT last year. Her mother now leads a campaign encouraging parents to help their children do the same.
BY KATHLEEN MCGRORY
KMCGRORY@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Ceresta Smith had a litany of concerns about high-stakes testing.
So when it came time for her teenage daughter to take the portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test required for graduation, Smith allowed her to opt out.
“It’s not that my husband and I are against standardized testing,” said Smith, a public school teacher in Miami-Dade County. “Both of us acknowledge that testing can be a very useful diagnostic tool. But as it is being used now, it is damaging to kids and it is creating a racial divide in our schools.”
Smith is part of a coalition of teachers urging parents across the country to opt their children out of standardized tests. The group – which says parents have a right to say no to standardized tests —