Anonymous wrote:Is it meaningless to the kids individually? Do the schools use standardized testing for differentiation and/or enrichment decisions?

IME No, not at all.

Inform your school now that you will be keeping your child home on testing days and that you are opting them out of the test. I'm sure if there is some provision that exists (which I doubt) they will let you know right away.

I do think you should inform them you have chosen to keep them home on testing day so there is no assumption your child just happened to be out.

Our school goes on lockdown with every grade affected by the seriousness of administering the test. That's what you get when the fear of god, loss of job and bad performance evaluations driving teachers teach to the test. It's too bad tying performance evaluations to the tests was ever implemented (I know it's been suspended this year) because the whole atmosphere in our school is really shitty and I don't see that abating just because the evaluation/performance piece isn't around this year.

The anti-PARCC sentiment will catch up to DC, it's just not here yet. It's like a rising tide of disgusted parents across the U.S.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. First, it's a total of 6 days of testing btwn Mar and May - not "a day". And I don't recall saying I was worried they'd be "scarred".

Even though the tests are being downplayed by teachers, the results still appear in their files, per our Principal. If we decide we want to send them to private, or move to another country (a possibility for us), these scores follow them.

Our principal has been pretty clear from what I've heard that they will not put much stock in results this year. But the results do follow them. For some people, that might matter.

It is not more than the DC CAS was:

The PARCC assessment is administered in two parts:

Part 1: Performance-Based Assessment (reading and math)
Date: March 10–April 8, 2015
Measures writing, research skills, and the student’s ability to solve multistep math problems

Part 2: End-of-Year Assessment (reading and math)
Date: May 7–June 5, 2015
Measures reading comprehension and math concepts and skills through multiple-choice and short-answer questions

NOTE: Students are not testing every day during the date ranges. Each school will determine its testing days and will let you know exactly when your child will be testing. Total PARCC testing time will generally be the same as total DC-CAS testing for each student.

And there are concerns about this test out there, from some who are looking closely at it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/23/parent-to-obama-let-me-tell-you-about-the-common-core-test-malia-and-sasha-dont-have-to-take-but-eva-does/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/26/school-superintendent-writes-warning-letter-on-parcc-common-core-test/

In some places, parents are being instructed on how to opt out. Haven't seen anything like that in D.C.

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/01/29/south-jersey-school-district-parcc-opt-out-standardized-test/

OP again. No one is hyping it up around the dinner table, and I am not asking whether it will serve anyone else if we were to opt out. Haven't discussed it with our kids at all yet. Again -- They've taken multiple standardized tests before. We're not philosophically opposed to them at all. This one is a mess. Tests computer skills at this point, not to mention the ambiguous, odd questions I've read about. This one needs work!

Again -- results -- which our principal has apparently said are NOT expected to be reliable or useful this year -- WILL stay in their files. If applying to private or international, those test scores follow. That is the concern. As I already said.


Question: Anyone have any idea if the is a provision to opt out, or if parents are legally obligated in some fashion to submit kids to PARCC testing?

There aren't any "provisions" or "procedures", just a matter whether you're willing to write false sick notices (and find a doctor to sign them when they exceed something like three days) or If you're okay for your child to be marked truant the day of tests (and relevant make-up days).

The train wreck (if) will be theirs not yours, nor your child's. I get the sense that teachers know that and communicate with their kids accordingly. In fact, I haven't even seen much of a push about that test from teachers of administrators, except maybe for some more attention to mastering technology, which is a good thing regardless. Hyping it up around the dinner table wouldn't be useful and I don't think you'd do anyone a service pulling your child.

This is a discussion board, people can ask questions as a spin-off within a thread.

OP's question was whether anyone knew about opt out procedures. Not whether opting out was warranted.

OP - I've not heard discussion of it. I had with the dc CAS - always some who kept their kids home. Haven't head that yet about the new test or whether there's a provision for opting out.

Is it meaningless to the kids individually? Do the schools use standardized testing for differentiation and/or enrichment decisions?

OP here. First, it's a total of 6 days of testing btwn Mar and May - not "a day". And I don't recall saying I was worried they'd be "scarred".

Even though the tests are being downplayed by teachers, the results still appear in their files, per our Principal. If we decide we want to send them to private, or move to another country (a possibility for us), these scores follow them.

Our principal has been pretty clear from what I've heard that they will not put much stock in results this year. But the results do follow them. For some people, that might matter.

It is really downplayed by the teachers. Talk to your teacher about how they are talking to the kids about it, but I'm not worried about it at all. The kids know it is meaningless to them individually.

What is the big deal if your kid takes the test for a day? It doesn't seem like any of this is going to scar them.

My kids took the DC CAS - no problem. I am not oppose at all to standardized testing. PARCC, however, strikes me as a train wreck right now -- not ready for prime time at best. They dropped from 24 participating states to 10 + DC.

Does anyone know if there is a way to opt our kids out of this testing this year in DC?