Saturday, May 4, 2013

Ed Notes Online: Norm in The Wave: Opt Out Movement Grows

Ed Notes Online: Norm in The Wave: Opt Out Movement Grows:


Norm in The Wave: Opt Out Movement Grows

School Scope
 
Opt Out Movement Grows

 Norm blogs at ednotesonline.org  

 “My child vomited on your high stakes test,” is one of my favorite buttons. With two weeks of testing ending on April 26th, parent grassroots groups “Change the Stakes” and “Time Out from Testing” led a large after school protest of 500 on the steps of the Tweed headquarters of the Department of Education. Many of these parents are part of the growing opt-out movement where parents refuse to allow their children to take part in a testing process which has turned into child abuse. Note this headline from Albany: “4th Grader Asked to Take NYS Test from Hospital Bed.” The kid was hooked up to medical devices.

As a retired 35 year elementary school teacher, I am not opposed to tests, created by teachers or standardized, though I increasingly have doubts. I took tests that mattered since the 5th or 6th grade. We were told to bring a number two pencil the next day. That was the only warning that a test was coming. Tests were used to place