Nathan Hale High School in Seattle says “No!” to the Common Core Standards SBAC test
The SBAC will begin to be implemented in March but this afternoon the Nathan Hale High School Senate, which functions as the Building Leadership Team typically made up of teachers, parents, staff and students, voted nearly unanimously not to administer the SBAC tests to 11th graders this year.
The Senate also recently voted not to administer the PSAT test to 10th graders at all in the future.
The reasons for refusing the SBAC for 11th graders included:
1. The SBAC is not required for graduation
2. Colleges will not use the SBAC this year
3. Since NCLB requires all students to pass the tests by 2014, and since few if any schools will be able to do that, all schools will therefore be considered failing by that standard. There is thus no reason to participate in erroneous and misapplied self-labeling.
4. It is neither a valid nor reliable nor equitable assessment. We will use classroom based assessments to guide our next instructional steps.
5. Cut scores of the SBAC reflect poor assessment strategy and will produce invalid and unreliable outcomes.
6. Students made the point: “Why waste time taking a test that is meaningless and that most of us will fail?”
7. The SBAC will tie up computer lab time for weeks.
8. The SBAC will take up time students need to work on classroom curriculum.
As a representative of Nathan Hale stated:
This is an important step. Nathan Hale High School is asserting its commitment to Nathan Hale High School in Seattle says “No!” to the Common Core Standards SBAC test | Seattle Education:
