The testing opt-out movement is growing, despite government efforts to kill it
The U.S. Education Department is warning states that they could be sanctioned if their public schools can’t force at least 95 percent of their students to take mandated standardized tests for “accountability” purposes. The warnings became necessary because of a growing testing “opt out” movement around the country that stemmed from the Obama administration’s push to use standardized test scores to evaluate students and teachers in unprecedented ways, using methods that assessment experts say are not valid for that purpose.
The movement was strongest in New York, where some 20 percent of students last spring refused to take the state’s “accountability” test, but it was just one of more than a dozen states that received letters from the Education Department warning them of trouble over the 95 percent threshold. All states received a letter in December from the department reminding them of the 95 percent rule and warning that funds could be withheld from states that don’t comply. The letter offered suggestions for how the states could sanction local school districts for failure to succeed, including withholding funds and/or lowering a local education agency or school’s rating in the state’s accountability system.
Education officials say that parents can’t pick and choose the exams that their children take and that these tests are important for “accountability” purposes. Education activists say parents have the right to allow their children to refuse to take a test that they believe is poorly designed and whose scores are being misused. And they say that threats from the government or schools won’t stop them.
Here’s a post on the current state of the movement by Carol Burris, a former New York high school principal who is now executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education Fund. A frequent contributor to The Answer Sheet, she was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the same organization named her the New York State High School Principal of the Year.
By Carol Burris
The testing “opt out” movement is gaining momentum, even as efforts to derail it ramp up. Despite the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and threats of financial sanctions for states whose testing rates fall below 95 percent, it is clear that more students will be opting out of testing in the spring of 2016.
Opt out is mainstream. The Ohio legislature is considering a bill that would take opt out students out of accountability reporting (presently their scores The testing opt-out movement is growing, despite government efforts to kill it - The Washington Post:
