Badass Teachers Association: The Opt Out Movement Continues to Grow

Badass Teachers Association: The Opt Out Movement Continues to Grow:

The Opt Out Movement Continues to Grow

This blog was originally posted at Changing the Narrative. Denisha Jones is a BAT Board of Directors and an Administrator for United Opt Out National. 

“As the opt out movement grows, we grow - sometimes in different directions and sometimes together - as we adjust to policy changes that impact our schools.” United Opt Out National. Growth is necessary to ensure we continue to refuse to accept the privatization of our schools and communities.  As a form of resistance, opt out threatens those who seek to push their toxic brand of reform on public education.  And as the tactics change and evolve, opt out is needed more than ever.  

            Opt out is a type of civil disobedience. It is a form of protest where parents, students, and teachers refuse to submit to the perverted use of high stakes standardized testing. We never wanted permission to opt out.  We never asked for an opt out clause. We promoted opt out as a tool for stopping the corporate assault on public education. Opt out was to be the first domino that sends the rest falling down. If a whole class opts out then there is no need for test prep and if a whole school opts out then there is no need to use valued added measures Badass Teachers Association: The Opt Out Movement Continues to Grow: