The Opt Out Update: More parents around the country are opting their students out of high stakes testing and the issue of student privacy rights is front and center | Seattle Education

The Opt Out Update: More parents around the country are opting their students out of high stakes testing and the issue of student privacy rights is front and center | Seattle Education:

The Opt Out Update: More parents around the country are opting their students out of high stakes testing and the issue of student privacy rights is front and center

by seattleducation2011

First, we’ll begin with why parents are opting their children out of high stakes testing.

Blind, severely disabled boy forced to take standardized test

Rick called me a few days ago. He had, he said, been contacted by Linda Stewart, a member of the Florida legislature. She was looking into a constituent’s school-related complaint, and wondered if Rick would check the matter out for her.The constituent is an administrator in a special school that serves the educational needs of kids who for one reason or another can’t be served by the county’s regular public schools. The school, however, is under school board jurisdiction and therefore subject to the same rules and regulations as all others.

One of those regulations is that every kid has to take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test in order for the school to receive state support. That creates a problem, the school administrator tells Stewart. The problem: Michael. He has a disability.

Contacted, state officials cite state statutes. Michael has no options. He has to take the