Following the release of the SBAc test results for the State of Washington we reached out to Nathan Olson (OSPI Communication Director) and asked: What changes were made in the data analysis from 2015/16 to 2016/17 that caused the delay in reporting to the public? Response: You’d asked earlier what was different about this year’s release. Superintendent Reykdal, first and foremost, wanted students and families and the public to know that this was one test – a single measure that should never be the sole indicator of a student’s success. Regarding the data, he was very intentional in focusing on gaps in the achievement of racial/ethnic groups; students who come from high poverty families … [Read more...]
Reasons to Consider Opting Out of State Tests 2016
Sometimes someone tells a story so well you simply can't do a better job. This article at Devine Sparking Nites. The author is "Raz" Saving your child from the experience of taking harmful high stakes tests, and promoting the importance of classroom instruction by a certified, quality teacher are critical first steps towards ridding our state of this horrible and costly practice. It will send a clear message to your child’s school, school district, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction(OSPI), and the state legislature that you have had enough with all the mandates being placed on your child, your child’s teacher, and your child’s school. Refuse. Opt Out. It is … [Read more...]
Washington State Superintendent Candidate Positions Comparisons
The ballots are showing up in the mail and people are starting to vote. For those who consider education one of the cornerstones of our future in Washington State you have a choice to make. Two candidates who differ in various ways. Based on their responses to questions we bring you a list of nine (9) questions with the side-by-side responses to each in the candidates own words. No summary from us...just their words. If you don't want to scroll through the page here is the document as a pdf: ospi-candidate-position-summary-comparison-2016 We've set up tables for each of the questions with columns for each candidate. If the finance side of the equation is important to you then here are … [Read more...]
Parents sue when third-grade honors students are not promoted to fourth grade
From The Washington Post - author is Valerie Strauss This belongs in the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category: In Florida (you knew it was Florida, didn’t you?), some third-graders — including honor students — are being forced to retake third grade because their parents decided to opt them out of the state’s mandated standardized reading test this past spring. An undetermined number of third-graders who refused to take the Florida Standards Assessment in reading have been barred from moving to fourth grade in some counties. A lawsuit filed by parents against state education officials as well as school boards in seven Florida counties says counties are interpreting the state’s … [Read more...]
State threatening anti-Common Core parents with jail?
From WND ..... Parents in South Carolina who are part of a nationwide revolt against Common Core say they are being threatened with “criminal accountability” if they prevent their children from taking the tests required by the controversial educational-standards program. Tamra Hood, a member of South Carolina Parents Involved in Education, said the state Education Department’s Chief Operating Officer, Elizabeth Carpentier, warned parents could spend 30 days in jail if even a single day of testing is missed, Breitbart News reported. In addition, Hood said Carpentier warned that groups that encourage parents to refuse the Common Core-aligned tests could be charged with aiding … [Read more...]
Four Seattle Teachers Declare: “We Refuse to Give the Tests”
From: Living in Dialogue in Seattle ..... By Anthony Cody and Susan DuFresne. Four Seattle area teachers who got to know one another in 2011, when they all attended the Save Our Schools march in Washington, DC, stood before the Renton Board of Education and read “statements of professional conscience” in which they pledged their refusal to administer standardized tests to their students. Their names are Julianna Krueger Dauble, Judy Dotson, Susan DuFresne and Becca Ritchie. Renton, Washington, is just south of Seattle. The Renton School District has 15,000 students and a five member elected school board. The board met on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 28, in the Sierra Heights … [Read more...]
The Parent Bill Of Rights For Education
From Exceptional Delaware ..... Since the Center for American Policy, Delaware Governor Jack Markell, and the President of the National PTA want to get 10,000 signatures on their Testing Bill of Rights within the next month, I think it is only fair parents who opt their children out of high-stakes assessments do the same. With that being said, this article needs 20,000 commenters, or official signatures, within the next month. We need to tell these corporate education reformers: NO MORE! If we get 50,000, even better. Our parental bill of rights regarding opt out or refusing the test bill of rights will be a work in progress, morphing and changing based on the need. We will make … [Read more...]
Opting out: A civic duty, not civil disobedience
From the News Boston Post ...... Sandra Stotsky, former Senior Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education, is Professor of Education emerita at the University of Arkansas. The writers who crafted the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the 2015 bill co-sponsored by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) re-authorizing the Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA), thought they had worded an airtight case to prevent parents from removing their children from federal mandated testing. States are responsible for ensuring a 95 percent participation rate of all its K-12 students in exchange for ESSA funds. If the rate is less than 95 percent, the US … [Read more...]
Who REALLY wants to know ALL about your kid?
From Missouri Education Watchdog .............. If you've been wondering why to Opt-Out your child/ren from the SBAC or PARCC or other high stakes testing you may want to spend a few minutes watching the video that opens when you click the picture. It's about 4 minutes long. Apparently, there’s a new Bill Gates’ funded video circulating. It’s all about making sure parents don’t opt out. Oh Please. Rather than promote the paid advertisement for Gates’ Common Core tests and data collection, I am instead going to ask you to watch this short 4 minute little video about children and data collection. Enjoy. If you watched the video above, (and really, I hope you did) it’s enough to … [Read more...]
Reasons to Consider Opting Out of State Tests 2016
From Divinesparkingnites.com .......... Saving your child from the experience of taking harmful high stakes tests, and promoting the importance of classroom instruction by a certified, quality teacher are critical first steps towards ridding our state of this horrible and costly practice. It will send a clear message to your child’s school, school district, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction(OSPI), and the state legislature that you have had enough with all the mandates being placed on your child, your child’s teacher, and your child’s school. Refuse. Opt Out. It is costing millions and millions of dollars of limited tax payer dollars to continue the use of … [Read more...]