The ESSA and opting out of the SBAC
Pearson and others are exploiting our children by using them to establish the validity, or lack thereof, of the SBACSBAC Tests Show No Validity or ReliabilitySome state departments of education have threatened to withhold a high school diploma if a student doesn’t take and pass a so-called college readiness test in grade 11. However, no state legislature has passed a statute linking the award of a high school diploma to passing a state or federal mandated college readiness test in grade 11 (and it’s highly unlikely any legislature would).
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was replaced in December, 2015 with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
This new Federal mandate was written to replace the No Child Left Behind Act. The main concerns that Carolyn and I have with ESSA are:
- The push for more charter schools.
- A big push for “personalized”, “blended” learning, meaning placing a student in front of a computer for the greater part of their class time. This is popular in charter schools as a way to keep cost down.
- A mandate of 95% student participation in standardized testing in response to the opt out movement with the threat of withholding Title I funds.
For greater detail on the ESSA, Mercedes Schneider has done a brilliant job of combing through the law and commenting on each aspect of the Federal Act.
About opting out of the Common Core testing, the state of New York in the springincreased their opt out numbers from 20% to 22%. There have been threats and pushback since the opt out numbers came out with the Federal government pressuring New York to come up with forms of punishment for districts who do not adhere to the 95% participation rate but as Sandra Stotsky points out, no state so far has been penalized by withholding Title I money and passing a mandated standardized test to graduate from high school needs to be put into law by the states to be legitimate.
We also need to keep in mind that the Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) has yet to be determined to be reliable and valid as an assessment of students’ understanding of subjects taught.
To follow is a repost of the article in full:
The writers who crafted the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the 2015 bill co-The ESSA and opting out of the SBAC | Seattle Education: