The U.S. Supreme Court has said that you CAN opt out. Due Process Clause of the 14th Ammendment.

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.

I have tried contacting multiple at OSSE regarding this very question and they have been perfectly useless. My next stop is DME. Also thinking of going to low cost private.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious - if you are so opposed to testing why do you send your child to public schools? Its not just about the couple days spent taking the test but the fact that the curriculum is designed around the test. If you are so opposed to the test that you would consider not sending your child to school those days why would you send them at all.

Are you paid to sit around and bully parents who are taking a stand against a pernicious trend in PUBLIC education? Or do you do it for fun?

The pernicious trend is the watering down of education, and the un-evenness of educational experience. Without testing, how will we know that Child A can't do division, and isn't ready for preAlgebra?

ask their teachers

It is simpler to look at the test. Few teachers will say "I haven't taught all the material in the text", even if there are really good reasons they didn't. You can look at the test and see that James isn't ready for 6th grade as he is reading at 2nd grade level

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?

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there is a shill from the WTU who complains about all and any testing which could reveal holes in the schooling our kids are receiving...

Why would it be from the WTU, more like from administrators? WTU doesn't run the schools, write the curriculum, hire the teachers, or write the tests. But keep blaming the teachers and the union if it makes you feel better. While you're busy blaming WTU, get active in your local school and try to make it better : )

Teachers are affected by Impact scores, is why. If students post low scores, the teachers' numbers suffer

So you're perpetuating the sham to "help" teachers? What would really help teachers is to work to abolish the stupid pay for performance system that depends on your high-performing children for teachers to be compensated. You must know it's unfair -- why perpetuate it? why not do something that really counts and work to stop this stupid system.

Anonymous wrote:I've contemplated pulling my kids out - mostly because they complain about how boring the process is and the fact that they can't read after they are done but just have to sit there. However, I know my precious snowflakes (sarcasm intended) test well and I know what ridiculous pressure schools and teachers with IMPACT can be under so I figure I'm doing my part to try to help out all of those who try so hard for my children. I know - it probably doesn't matter - but it feels right.

Nice thoughts, but what you're rally doing is perpetuating a sham that is ultimately not helping anyone but the testing companies and the downtown administrators who need your children's scores to look good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there is a shill from the WTU who complains about all and any testing which could reveal holes in the schooling our kids are receiving...

I wonder about a shill from central office -- terrified that opting out might catch on among the kids who can be counted on to score well on the tests.

That's what DCPS likes most about your kids -- that they make the adults looks good, so you can bet they will try to shame you into having your kids take the test and threaten you with damage to their records.

Sometimes I think the reason some high SES parents go along with the tests is because of their own academic competitiveness. I wish more would become anti- NCLB standardized testing activists like so many other public school parents across the country.

It's typically *not* the kids that are going to do well that are looking to opt out. And, to take that one step further, if kids who would do well were to opt out, that would actually HURT the school even more than not opting out would.

Not really, it would be the first step in showing how silly this type of testing is. everyone knows it's SES that affects the quality of a school. When people see the number of advanced decline when the best students opt out, they will see what a sham the tests are. It won't "hurt" the school -- the school will be just as good as before. It will hurt the credibility of the administrators -- and they certainly have it coming. Why are parents protecting these people? They are exploiting your children for their scores and haven't done anything substantial for the neediest students that they came here to help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Opted my kids out without any pushback from Principals.

I will just keep my kids home during that time (yes, I do work). I don't expect the school to provide another activity for them. It is only a few hours on a few days.

And the practice days.

Neither of the two schools we are in have practice days.

I've contemplated pulling my kids out - mostly because they complain about how boring the process is and the fact that they can't read after they are done but just have to sit there. However, I know my precious snowflakes (sarcasm intended) test well and I know what ridiculous pressure schools and teachers with IMPACT can be under so I figure I'm doing my part to try to help out all of those who try so hard for my children. I know - it probably doesn't matter - but it feels right.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there is a shill from the WTU who complains about all and any testing which could reveal holes in the schooling our kids are receiving...

I wonder about a shill from central office -- terrified that opting out might catch on among the kids who can be counted on to score well on the tests.

That's what DCPS likes most about your kids -- that they make the adults looks good, so you can bet they will try to shame you into having your kids take the test and threaten you with damage to their records.

Sometimes I think the reason some high SES parents go along with the tests is because of their own academic competitiveness. I wish more would become anti- NCLB standardized testing activists like so many other public school parents across the country.

It's typically *not* the kids that are going to do well that are looking to opt out. And, to take that one step further, if kids who would do well were to opt out, that would actually HURT the school even more than not opting out would.

To the poster who advocates that we put our child in private school: we cannot afford it, we don't want religious education and we believe in public education! The test mania we don't agree with and opting out is our only way of protesting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sometimes wonder if there is a shill from the WTU who complains about all and any testing which could reveal holes in the schooling our kids are receiving...

Why would it be from the WTU, more like from administrators? WTU doesn't run the schools, write the curriculum, hire the teachers, or write the tests. But keep blaming the teachers and the union if it makes you feel better. While you're busy blaming WTU, get active in your local school and try to make it better : )

Teachers are affected by Impact scores, is why. If students post low scores, the teachers' numbers suffer

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious - if you are so opposed to testing why do you send your child to public schools? Its not just about the couple days spent taking the test but the fact that the curriculum is designed around the test. If you are so opposed to the test that you would consider not sending your child to school those days why would you send them at all.

Are you paid to sit around and bully parents who are taking a stand against a pernicious trend in PUBLIC education? Or do you do it for fun?

The pernicious trend is the watering down of education, and the un-evenness of educational experience. Without testing, how will we know that Child A can't do division, and isn't ready for preAlgebra?

ask their teachers

It is simpler to look at the test. Few teachers will say "I haven't taught all the material in the text", even if there are really good reasons they didn't. You can look at the test and see that James isn't ready for 6th grade as he is reading at 2nd grade level

FYI most schools have an opt out testing group anyway because to IEP or esol level. S