A great story here on WFYI on how some parents are choosing to Opt-Out of the standardized testing in Indiana. Interestingly, the Indiana DOE didn't respond to some of these folks for three months but sent an email the day this story came out. Shows what it takes these days sadly. The conversation is building steam and getting interesting.
Why Some Indiana Parents Won’t Let Their Kids Take State Tests This Spring
They’ve tried organizing. They’ve tried criticizing. They’ve tried testifying.
But despite efforts to get their message out, some parents still feel shut out of the discussion about changes in education policy across Indiana and the nation.
So now, a handful of them is trying a new way to make their point — resisting.
Having long criticized laws like the federal No Child Left Behind act and Indiana’s Public Law 221 for relying too heavily on test scores, small groups of parents are planning to have their students “Opt Out” of statewide testing this spring. On test day, their kids simply won’t show up to school.
- ‘This Page Intentionally Left Blank’: Opt Out In IndianaEvery Indiana third grader will take a new reading exam in March to determine whether he or she can move on to the fourth grade. As Kyle Stokes reports, that’s one more reason some parents who worry about the increasingly-high stakes of state testing don’t want their children taking the exams this spring.Download
‘WE DON’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH TESTING PER SE’
Though state officials doubt the legality of such a move, organizers say Opt Out is a vehicle parents can use to vent their frustration with education policies. National opponents of high-stakes standardized testing say if as few as five or six percent of students were to skip statewide exams, state officials could no longer consider the rest of the test results valid.
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