Lecker: Opting out, parents answer to a higher authority
Opt-Out/Refusal Guides for each State | United Opt Out National
Opt-Out/Refusal Guides for each State | United Opt Out National: OPT-OUT/REFUSAL GUIDES FOR EACH STATEAll documents are for informational purposes only and do not substitute as legal advice or legal counsel. The information contained in these documents and this website may or may not reflect the most current developments in education policy within our nation or within each state. Information share
This year, Connecticut school districts had the option of administering the CMTs and CAPTs one more year, or the Common Core tests, known as the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium test, or the SBAC. The SBAC is just a field test, an experiment conducted in actual conditions -- on our actual children. For some reason, the vast majority of districts elected to offer the SBAC field tests.
I live in a district that chose the SBAC. The SBAC is to be administered on computers. Actually in our schools, some children will take the SBAC on computers and some on iPads. How this differential test administration qualifies as "standardized" is puzzling. The iPads are more difficult to type on, so now, in January, children are practicing -- for a test in May. What a productive way to spend school time.
As this SBAC test prep overtakes our schools, and interferes with learning, more parents may realize they do not want their children participating in this experiment. This realization may be especially important for parents of 11th-graders, who already took the CAPTs last year, and who will be facing these standardized tests, which do not count, at roughly the same time they are taking SATs, SAT subject tests, APs and ACTs.
As I detailed in my column several weeks ago, theState Department of Education knew this protest might be coming, so it orchestrated a strategy for bullying parents into not opting out of these tests. I noted that SDE provided districts with a sample letter to parents who indicate they want to opt their children, warning them that state law "requires that all children enrolled in public schools must take yearly state assessments;" but not informing parents