Tens of thousands of parents and students nationwide are engaging in
civil disobedience by refusing to participate in federally mandated
standardized tests, as states are fully deploying new exams aligned to
the Common Core State Standards for the first time.
While the opt-out movement has gained steam from some looking to protest
the controversial academic standards and what they say is an
overemphasis on testing in schools, some of its leaders say it's about
more than just those two things.
"Opt-out is not an anti-testing movement. This is a movement to reclaim
and do what’s right for kids in public schools," says Tim Slekar, a
leader of the United Opt Out movement in Wisconsin and dean of the
school of education at Edgewood College. "This is a movement to restore
real learning."
[READ: What It's Like to Take a Common Core Test]
Spending on standards and tests, Slekar says, has taken away from
funding music and arts programs, for example, and could be better
allocated elsewhere.
"Why are the standards – the first ones we
set – not, 'All kids will come to school not hungry, not sick and with
access to books?'" Slekar says. "Those are some great standards, but yet
those standards we're not allowed to go after."
"A place for
testing is when it is given back to the classroom teacher," he adds.
"Politicians have no business of being in the testing, teaching and
learning business. They're the ones to blame for the fact that we have
an increasing achievement gap … They're responsible for the absolute
disaster we see in some of our poorer public schools."
The number of students who have chosen not to take the tests has varied, from a relative handful who have opted out to hundreds who have walked out in protest.
Widespread protests against the Common Core-aligned tests
began last month,
when states began administering exams created by the Partnership for
Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium. The
other Common Core testing consortium, the Smarter Balanced Assessment
Consortium (SBAC), will begin administering exams in about 20 states
later this month. Parents, teachers and school leaders have expressed
concern that the tests may be too difficult or time-consuming, or that
their schools' technology might not be up to snuff for what the tests
require.
For many, the jury is still out on both the Common Core standards and
the linked exams. Teach Plus, a nonprofit focused on placing effective
teachers in urban schools, on Tuesday
released a survey
of more than 1,000 teachers in Boston, Chicago, Memphis, Nashville and
the District of Columbia who evaluated sample PARCC questions. More than
three-quarters – 79 percent – of teachers said the test items were
better than what their states used to have, but there were mixed results
on whether they were grade-appropriate or too challenging.
[RELATED: Florida School District Retracts Historic Testing Opt Out Decision]
"As a teacher, we know developmentally some kids might not learn to
read until the second grade," says Peggy Robertson, a former teacher and
an administrator of the
national United Opt Out group.
"It's not like when a kid can’t walk you push them harder to walk. You
wait and allow them to walk as they’re ready. Under Common Core, if
you’re not reading at a particular level in kindergarten … you’re
already being told you’re a failure. When you place these artificial
standards on children and force them to comply to it, you set them up to
hate learning and to hate reading."
Parents, too, are skeptical of the benefits of standardized testing. A 2014 PDK/Gallup survey showed that
68 percent of public school parents
said they do not believe standardized tests are helpful to teachers.
Parents were more supportive, though, of the idea of using tests to make
decisions about grade-level promotions, graduation requirements and
whether to award college credit.
At the same time, Congress is working to reauthorize the No Child Left
Behind Act, which established annual standardized testing as a staple in
public schools. Although the sweeping education law governs many
different aspects of how federal funds are used in schools nationwide,
the role of testing has been a major point of contention.
No Child Left Behind requires public school students to be tested once
annually in math and English in third through eighth grade, and again in
each subject once in high school. In total, federal mandates account
for 17 tests students take throughout their academic careers: seven for
English, seven for math and three grade-span tests (once each in
elementary, middle and high school) for science.
Many state departments of education point to No Child Left Behind and
state policies when discussing why they feel it's important that
students are tested each year. But states' own policies on whether they
allow students to opt out of annual testing vary widely.
Some states, such as Utah and California, very clearly allow students to
opt out of annual testing for any reason, according to a research brief
published by the Education Commission of the States. Others, such as
Oregon and Pennsylvania, allow students to be excused from testing to
accommodate religious beliefs.
But in states where testing opt-outs aren't allowed, guidance from
departments of education "run along a spectrum from silence on the issue
to state guidance or policies clearly prohibiting opt-outs," the brief
says.
[ALSO: No Child Left Behind Debate Moves From Testing to Federal Oversight]
"Given the confusion and quite varied information floating around out
there, it would be probably to states’ advantage to at least be clear
what the policy is," says Julie Rowland, a researcher for the Education
Commission of the States and an author of the research brief. "Many are
moving in that direction."
But even when the opt-out policy is clear, it doesn't seem to be stopping some families and students.
The Illinois State Board of Education in October sent a letter to
parents who requested that their students be excused from testing,
stating that skipping the tests would be breaking the law and that
teachers and administrators who refused to give the exams would face
"local disciplinary action and possible action by the State Educator
Preparation and Licensure Board."
The letter said districts could adopt their own policies on how to handle students who refuse to take the tests.
"A district that allows students to opt out of the state’s required
test would directly violate both federal and state law," the letter
said. "Moreover, districts face lower public school recognition status
and threaten their receipt of state and federal funds if they break the
law and do not administer the PARCC assessment."
Illinois State Superintendent of Education Christopher Koch this month also
released a letter
emphasizing the importance of the tests. But some state lawmakers have
introduced a bill that would allow parents to decide whether their
children take the tests.
The Ohio Department of Education has also clearly outlined the
potential consequences of students not taking annual assessments:
Third-grade students could be retained due to a state reading policy,
high school students could risk graduating because the annual tests are
part of the state's graduation requirements, and English Language
Learners could be delayed or prevented from leaving the program.
[MORE: Study: High Standardized Test Scores Don't Translate to Better Cognition]
Ohio and Colorado – which also had previously said there would be
consequences for refusing to take the tests – have backed off and said
they won't penalize districts where large numbers of students skip them.
Regardless, the possible penalties haven't stopped students
"Opt-out is an act of civil disobedience. The one way we have to vote
for saving public schools is by refusing these tests," Robertson says.
"The truth is it doesn't matter [what the state policy is]. It’s an act
stating we reclaim our public schools. Opt-out allows us to vote in that
way."