How do I opt my child out of testing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a legal right for a parent to opt their child out? Seems like if one parent can choose not to vaccinate their child another can choose not to make their kid take this test.

It is not illegal to keep you kid from taking standardized tests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no formal opt out (confirmed at a recent meeting with DCPS PARCC officials). So your options are medical reasons or truancy, neither of which - to me! - seem wroth the trouble of potentially harming your child's records.

or just taking a couple of days off as for a family vacation or emergency. Don't worry about "harming your child's records" - this is just a fear tactic.

I'm afraid it would be more than a few days. I think in most public schools they have a window of time when they can test children. I believe it's usually two weeks sometimes three weeks. they build in time into the schedule for make up exams because children were absent. I believe every child who is enrolled but does not test is counted as a zero (basically to disincentivize any shenanigans about not testing children who are potentially low scoring and then just saying that they were absent) so there's a huge incentive to test every kid. Likely you will get so kind of phone call from the school everyday that your kid is absent.

especially if your kid is a known good student -- they need those scores. As for the rules and consequences for not taking tests -- they should be written down somewhere. Demand to see that -- don't take verbal-only instructions that tests are mandatory as gospel -- it means they are trying to snow you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
teachers give tests too - and they know your kid. There's no magic to standardized tests devised for NCLB --- they are all about keeping testing companies in business and perpetuating the whole NCLB mess. Is that what you want as a parent?

What I want as a parent is some uniformity, which comes from standardized outside tests. I want to think that if I move my 6th grader from Stokes to Hardy, he won't be behind. I want to know that if I get relocated to Boca Raton midyear, my 6th grader won't be lost in math or whatever, or repeating material. You may have seen on this forum complaints that Basis kids who went to walls had to repeat a class due to geometry not being covered in sequence. I don't want that type of mess.
When your child applies to college, that 4.6gpa counts for little if the SAT doesn't mirror those grades, and there are reasons that colleges look closely at standardized tests as well as those given by individual teachers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
teachers give tests too - and they know your kid. There's no magic to standardized tests devised for NCLB --- they are all about keeping testing companies in business and perpetuating the whole NCLB mess. Is that what you want as a parent?

What I want as a parent is some uniformity, which comes from standardized outside tests. I want to think that if I move my 6th grader from Stokes to Hardy, he won't be behind. I want to know that if I get relocated to Boca Raton midyear, my 6th grader won't be lost in math or whatever, or repeating material. You may have seen on this forum complaints that Basis kids who went to walls had to repeat a class due to geometry not being covered in sequence. I don't want that type of mess.
When your child applies to college, that 4.6gpa counts for little if the SAT doesn't mirror those grades, and there are reasons that colleges look closely at standardized tests as well as those given by individual teachers

This. People who say "the teacher can give tests" don't seem to understand the word "standardized." Not saying that the tests are currently good, but the answer is not eliminating all standardized tests. The answer is having a reasonable number of better tests.

[Anonymous]

If you have a high-achieving kid, you shouldn't have any fear of the test. But if you pull your high-achieving student out of testing for some stupid ideological reason or because you believe all the hooey about things like it being "stressful" for a kid to have to select the correct answer on a computer as opposed to filling in the oval with a #2 pencil, then you are throwing teachers and schools under the bus.

But, more likely, you want to pull your kid out of testing because you don't think he will do well - which is a denial problem.

[Anonymous]

One more time. People in the opt-out movement aren't "afraid of the test" for their own child. They are rightly concerned about the quality of THE PARCC test ( not all standardized testing) in terms of its validity. And also in terms of how high stakes tests that aren't well made will effect school culture, teacher latitude for creativity, early childhood education, narrowing of the curriculum and manufactured failure for children so tech companies can come in a "save the day".

For what its worth, it isn't just parents. It is school officials, assessment experts and experienced educators across the whole country who have similar concerns.

So you can take your whole "scaredy-cat-parent" schtick and shove off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One more time. People in the opt-out movement aren't "afraid of the test" for their own child. They are rightly concerned about the quality of THE PARCC test ( not all standardized testing) in terms of its validity. And also in terms of how high stakes tests that aren't well made will effect school culture, teacher latitude for creativity, early childhood education, narrowing of the curriculum and manufactured failure for children so tech companies can come in a "save the day".

For what its worth, it isn't just parents. It is school officials, assessment experts and experienced educators across the whole country who have similar concerns.

So you can take your whole "scaredy-cat-parent" schtick and shove off.

I'd happily advocate for well structured, appropriate tests. I've been following the anti-testers for a while though, and it seems there is no test which ever makes them happy. And the testing companies do not ever save the day, they offer a new and improved test, or books and prep materials. I've seen several posts about the anxiety the tests supposedly create in the poster"s child, and I'd suggest the parent look close to home for the source of that anxiety or at the specific teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
teachers give tests too - and they know your kid. There's no magic to standardized tests devised for NCLB --- they are all about keeping testing companies in business and perpetuating the whole NCLB mess. Is that what you want as a parent?

What I want as a parent is some uniformity, which comes from standardized outside tests. I want to think that if I move my 6th grader from Stokes to Hardy, he won't be behind. I want to know that if I get relocated to Boca Raton midyear, my 6th grader won't be lost in math or whatever, or repeating material. You may have seen on this forum complaints that Basis kids who went to walls had to repeat a class due to geometry not being covered in sequence. I don't want that type of mess.
When your child applies to college, that 4.6gpa counts for little if the SAT doesn't mirror those grades, and there are reasons that colleges look closely at standardized tests as well as those given by individual teachers

This. People who say "the teacher can give tests" don't seem to understand the word "standardized." Not saying that the tests are currently good, but the answer is not eliminating all standardized tests. The answer is having a reasonable number of better tests.

I understand standardized completely and know there's a difference between how the SAT's are used and the NCLB tests are used. SAT's are a national measure and are taken any a subset of students wanting to get into (most) institutes of higher learning. As for moving to Boca Raton -- they use different standardized tests than DCPS, so they won't help much there. You can find out about the Stokes/Hardy differences much better by visiting the school and talking to parents/teachers about kids like yours. In short, the kind of "mess" you want to avoid can't be fixed by DCPS standardized tests used for NCLB. Those tests are the kind that are "taught to" so pull the highest possible scores out of the kids to make the schools district look as good as possible -- they are not meant to help your kid learn and have nothing to do with their grades, which some kids know very well.

[Anonymous]

It's not anti testing. Tests are important the anger and frustration is at these tests and at Pearson and how they have changed the public school experience. Why can't kids have more recess, gym, play, creative lesson plans for teachers? Because these stupid tests dominate and the teachers and principals need the kids to do well so they are scared to take time out of the day for important age appropriate work. Instead they want to max out on every moment of the school day to "teach to the test" so scores go up. Because teachers and principals are evaluated on these scores. For raises, job security etc... It's a terrible system and our kids are getting screwed. So, testing is fine - but it needs to be meaningful teacher designed assessment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a high-achieving kid, you shouldn't have any fear of the test. But if you pull your high-achieving student out of testing for some stupid ideological reason or because you believe all the hooey about things like it being "stressful" for a kid to have to select the correct answer on a computer as opposed to filling in the oval with a #2 pencil, then you are throwing teachers and schools under the bus.

But, more likely, you want to pull your kid out of testing because you don't think he will do well - which is a denial problem.

No, the system has thrown them under the bus and parents who blindly go along with this testing are perpetuating a system that does no good for students or teachers. Where are the teachers saying they value the tests, the time it takes to prepare for them and the time it takes from other classroom activities?

As for the denial problem -- talk abut hooey!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not anti testing. Tests are important the anger and frustration is at these tests and at Pearson and how they have changed the public school experience. Why can't kids have more recess, gym, play, creative lesson plans for teachers? Because these stupid tests dominate and the teachers and principals need the kids to do well so they are scared to take time out of the day for important age appropriate work. Instead they want to max out on every moment of the school day to "teach to the test" so scores go up. Because teachers and principals are evaluated on these scores. For raises, job security etc... It's a terrible system and our kids are getting screwed. So, testing is fine - but it needs to be meaningful teacher designed assessment

Well stated and so true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
teachers give tests too - and they know your kid. There's no magic to standardized tests devised for NCLB --- they are all about keeping testing companies in business and perpetuating the whole NCLB mess. Is that what you want as a parent?

What I want as a parent is some uniformity, which comes from standardized outside tests. I want to think that if I move my 6th grader from Stokes to Hardy, he won't be behind. I want to know that if I get relocated to Boca Raton midyear, my 6th grader won't be lost in math or whatever, or repeating material. You may have seen on this forum complaints that Basis kids who went to walls had to repeat a class due to geometry not being covered in sequence. I don't want that type of mess.
When your child applies to college, that 4.6gpa counts for little if the SAT doesn't mirror those grades, and there are reasons that colleges look closely at standardized tests as well as those given by individual teachers

This. People who say "the teacher can give tests" don't seem to understand the word "standardized." Not saying that the tests are currently good, but the answer is not eliminating all standardized tests. The answer is having a reasonable number of better tests.

I understand standardized completely and know there's a difference between how the SAT's are used and the NCLB tests are used. SAT's are a national measure and are taken any a subset of students wanting to get into (most) institutes of higher learning. As for moving to Boca Raton -- they use different standardized tests than DCPS, so they won't help much there. You can find out about the Stokes/Hardy differences much better by visiting the school and talking to parents/teachers about kids like yours. In short, the kind of "mess" you want to avoid can't be fixed by DCPS standardized tests used for NCLB. Those tests are the kind that are "taught to" so pull the highest possible scores out of the kids to make the schools district look as good as possible -- they are not meant to help your kid learn and have nothing to do with their grades, which some kids know very well.

The first bolded point is exactly why I favor an external standardized test. Below benchmark? Time for intervention. I can't find out about the educational situation at Stokes vs Hardy simply by talking to parents. Firstly, I'm an outsider...how am I going to find out which impartial parents I could talk to? Buttonhole one outside the building at pick up time?Do teachers do sit downs with parents of students who aren't even enrolled in that school? Ask the main office for a list of parents who'd be willing to talk to me? I doubt that last would lead to any non-boosters. I like external tests, for may reasons. I just may not like the tests, or like the loss of recess etc. For decades there's been hand-wringing about failing schools. How else do you propose that we as a society identify those failing schools so they can be brought up to speed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One more time. People in the opt-out movement aren't "afraid of the test" for their own child. They are rightly concerned about the quality of THE PARCC test ( not all standardized testing) in terms of its validity. And also in terms of how high stakes tests that aren't well made will effect school culture, teacher latitude for creativity, early childhood education, narrowing of the curriculum and manufactured failure for children so tech companies can come in a "save the day".

For what its worth, it isn't just parents. It is school officials, assessment experts and experienced educators across the whole country who have similar concerns.

So you can take your whole "scaredy-cat-parent" schtick and shove off.

Perhaps the good news is that "scaredy-cat parent" is all they've got. And I say "they" because I doubt it's a parent pushing this schtick. Sounds more like the rhetoric that comes out of central office when they get nervous about not getting their way and perpetuating their system. Imagine the flack they'd get if there were a parent uprising here, the way there has been in other school systems! Imagine how they would have to scramble if the scores suddenly decreased when the advanced students eschewed the tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not anti testing. Tests are important the anger and frustration is at these tests and at Pearson and how they have changed the public school experience. Why can't kids have more recess, gym, play, creative lesson plans for teachers? Because these stupid tests dominate and the teachers and principals need the kids to do well so they are scared to take time out of the day for important age appropriate work. Instead they want to max out on every moment of the school day to "teach to the test" so scores go up. Because teachers and principals are evaluated on these scores. For raises, job security etc... It's a terrible system and our kids are getting screwed. So, testing is fine - but it needs to be meaningful teacher designed assessment

Then lobby against Pearson, or help promote or design a better test. I'm all for teacher creativity, but gluing crepe paper to paper plates shouldn't replace mastery of reading or addition. I personally think the school day is too long, and kids would focus better with more recess and PE.

[Anonymous]

Until there is a critical number of kids opting out we will be stuck w these tests. They are NOT decreasing the learning gap. Only making it worse. By defending these tests on the basis of a ideal goal of closing the achievement gap and having an external standard you are RUINING public education. We will soon have a system where all who can afford it will go private and the rest of us will have to put our kids through Pearson School. Unlike their peers in private school they will not have ample time for recess, the arts, gym and enjoyable learning. I expect the home schooling movement to grow. It is very very sad.