PARCC -- What a waste. Can we opt out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the value of the test is to the institution itself, to measure how various schools are doing relative to each other. There is no direct benefit to the student at all, only an indirect benefit in having some sort of quantitative assessment of the whole student population.

It depends on how the school uses it. If they see that a significant number of students in a particular grade are struggling with reading comprehension or fractions, they can adjust the next year's instruction accordingly. That's happened at my child's school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on this we'll do the PARCC.

-- OP

Based on this, we won't. We strive to teach our kids to march to a different drummer, privately, not to start movements. Hence, we will meticulously track all manner of absences from 3rd grade next year, prepared to challenge if DCPS sets the attendance police on us for opting out. Civil disobedience may have costs, but they're worth paying if you're acting on contrarian principle out of deeply held beliefs.

I certainly didn't sign up to further enrich Mc-Graw Hill or Pearsons when I enrolled my child in a public school. They make hundreds of millions of dollars testing PS students learning to the Common Core. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Pearson Education. Corporate entity. Grades every PARCC test. 40,000+ employees. Ech.

[Anonymous]

will your kid bring up the class average or bring it down? If you'll hurt the class average, you are also hurting your child's teacher at a DCPS. At a charter, if enough parents opt out you could put the charter at risk.

[Anonymous]

Will you opt your child out of the SAT, which OSSE pays for every single child who takes a PSAT and SAT at state expense? What about AP exams?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See this guidance from the Office of the Student Advocate (page 2 covers opting out).

https://sboe.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/sboe/page_content/attachments/OSA%20Assessments%20FAQ%205-13-16.pdf

Short answer - not really

According to that document, the short answer is yes. Yes, you can opt out. Bear in mind that if the school has a celebration party for completing the test, your DC may be excluded. Also, you may need to find some documentation (get your pediatrician to write a note) to state why your child was "sick" on testing days.

Is there an opt-out policy for statewide assessments?

There are currently no formal disciplinary consequences for a student who refuses to take the test. A student who does not take the PARCC assessment may be excluded from any incentive rewards.

Does my child HAVE to take the PARCC assessments?

Currently, there is no legislation banning parents from opting out of statewide assessments, nor is there legislation for an opt-out process. According to the statewide assessment policy from OSSE, eligible students are required to take any statewide assessments. A child may be marked as absent for the time missed during assessment testing days. A student who does not take the PARCC assessment may also be excluded from any incentive rewards for successful completion of assessments.


I would love to see DC develop an anti-testing culture comparable to that in more educated states such a Massachusetts (http://www.citizensforpublicschools.org/the-facts-on-opting-out-of-mcas-or-parcc/). I resent the school using my child for its own purposes. This doesn't benefit the students.

What's worse is that some (many?) elementary schools have younger grades "celebrate" the older grades taking the PARCC by holding school-wide rah-rah PARCC assemblies or making signs or whatever. So not only is wasting the time of kids in testing years, but also the time of the kids in non-testing grades. Meanwhile, it is teaching the younger kids that the tests are a big deal and that that deserve a lot of emphasis, which is exactly what you don't want if understand the downsides of test-driven education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:will your kid bring up the class average or bring it down? If you'll hurt the class average, you are also hurting your child's teacher at a DCPS. At a charter, if enough parents opt out you could put the charter at risk.

+1. This is not the hill to die on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will you opt your child out of the SAT, which OSSE pays for every single child who takes a PSAT and SAT at state expense? What about AP exams?

We expect to be working abroad by HS. Children will take IB Diploma exams. IB is a non-profit. Many good colleges (including Middlebury, Bowdoin and Wake Forest) have gone test optional in the last decade. More will follow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:will your kid bring up the class average or bring it down? If you'll hurt the class average, you are also hurting your child's teacher at a DCPS. At a charter, if enough parents opt out you could put the charter at risk.

+1. This is not the hill to die on.

So what happens then? Our in-boundary school, where not even 10% of the kids are FARMs, will lose its high SES families? They'll sell their million dollar row houses and run off because we brought down the class average? The wonderful teacher will be fired? Right.

If you see value in having your children take the PARCC, pleasing Pearson shareholders and the mega rich CEO, and staying out of trouble with DCPS and OSSE, fantastic. Please leave those who beg to differ alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:will your kid bring up the class average or bring it down? If you'll hurt the class average, you are also hurting your child's teacher at a DCPS. At a charter, if enough parents opt out you could put the charter at risk.

+1. This is not the hill to die on.

So what happens then? Our in-boundary school, where not even 10% of the kids are FARMs, will lose its high SES families? They'll sell their million dollar row houses and run off because we brought down the class average? The wonderful teacher will be fired? Right.

If you see value in having your children take the PARCC, pleasing Pearson shareholders and the mega rich CEO, and staying out of trouble with DCPS and OSSE, fantastic. Please leave those who beg to differ alone.

Your teacher's IMPACT score will be affected. DCPS writ large may lose funding from the feds.

[Anonymous]

Teachers who think they have a good shot at the highly effective bonuses will be less likely to choose your school over others that have similarly high SES student bodies but fewer people who opt out.

[Anonymous]

I'm ok with someone opting out if you promise to opt your child out of DC paid SATs and ACTs too.

You can apply to test optional schools. That list gets a little bigger each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers who think they have a good shot at the highly effective bonuses will be less likely to choose your school over others that have similarly high SES student bodies but fewer people who opt out.

Try again. Teachers beat down the door for jobs at our school, and there is very little turnover. Similarly high SES student bodies can't compete with our school on various levels.

Sorry, there's a tyrannical strain to the DC public school PARCC testing regime this that this New Englander is going to quietly challenge, even if nobody else out there cares to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm ok with someone opting out if you promise to opt your child out of DC paid SATs and ACTs too.

You can apply to test optional schools. That list gets a little bigger each year.

Fair enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on this we'll do the PARCC.

-- OP

Based on this, we won't. We strive to teach our kids to march to a different drummer, privately, not to start movements. Hence, we will meticulously track all manner of absences from 3rd grade next year, prepared to challenge if DCPS sets the attendance police on us for opting out. Civil disobedience may have costs, but they're worth paying if you're acting on contrarian principle out of deeply held beliefs.

I certainly didn't sign up to further enrich Mc-Graw Hill or Pearsons when I enrolled my child in a public school. They make hundreds of millions of dollars testing PS students learning to the Common Core. No thanks.

you're ridiculous.