Why I'm Opting Out

It's that time of year, again.  Standardized Testing time.

And we've decided to opt our children out.

Before everyone gets too excited--this is not a partisan political piece.  Nor is it a conspiracy theory piece.  Nor is it a judgement on anyone for their feelings about Common Core, standardized testing, No Child Left Behind, or the education system in America.  I consider myself to be a political moderate--occasionally swinging reasonably left and reasonably right of center--knowing that the word "reasonably" is, indeed, an opinion.

So here's a little peek into the way my brain works and why we've decided to have our children take a pass on participating in Common Core Data Collection this year.

Spoiler Alert:  It's not (just) because I'm a dissenting pot-stirrer.  :)


I don't know enough about it.

As a teacher, I know something about the standards.  I've looked at them.  Frankly, they look okay to me.  They're not that different from what Kansas, at least, had in the past.  But the standards aren't rocket science.  Enough research has been done at this point to give us a pretty good guideline of when students should be introduced to what, what skills are prerequisite for others, etc.  As a teacher, and as a mother who has relocated her children from a central and rural part of the U.S. to a coastal and urban part, there is a good deal of comfort in knowing that what is being taught has some continuity from place to place.  The actual standards aren't the issue for me. It's the fact that as I've tried to research Common Core...where it came from...what its purpose is...I've come across some very disturbing information. "Big Brother is watching you" kind of information.  That information could be completely false.  Or it could be completely true.  Most likely it's got elements of both.  I have a lot of fact-checking to do  But at this point, I honestly haven't researched it enough to allow my children to be guinea pigs in something that's pretty new, pretty unexplained, and makes me feel pretty uncomfortable.

The test itself and the testing process bothers me.

While I commend the powers that be for recognizing the damage that has been done to our learners by spending the bulk of our school year teaching children how to choose the one correct answer out of four possible choices, and are therefore trying to adjust their testing methods accordingly,  I'm still not convinced that "Smarter Balanced" or any individual state-created alternative is smarter than a real-live person looking over a student's work and manually grading the process he/she used to arrive at an answer.
 Oh, and guess what?  Computers are glitchy.  These systems require a lot of bandwidth to run. Sometimes they crash.  I watched a student this week painstakingly spend 11/2 hours on a math section.  He FINALLY finished it, submitted it, and the system glitched.  It "lost" over half of his answers.  He had to redo that part of the test.  As I watched his face register frustration, dismay, and defeat, I saw the eyes of my three children.  Why should they be the ones that  pay the price because we can't seem to use all of our collective intelligence to find a better way to evaluate school effectiveness?  And speaking of computers...
I'm not sure about your districts, but ours here is administering all tests on iPads this year.  This is interesting, because my children still do the majority of their daily learning with pencil and paper.  They use iPads to work on projects occasionally in class, but my son stated that he has never taken a test of any kind for any class on a computer or on an iPad.  My daughter has specifically stated to me that she does better work on paper than she does on a screen.  So do I.  Yet  this is the method we're using to assess all children's yearly knowledge, regardless of  individual learning style. Oh, and about yearly knowledge...
Maybe someone could explain to me why children are being asked to take a test this week over information that they are supposed to master this school year?  What are the remaining nine weeks of the year for if my child is proficient in all the standards already? Shouldn't he/she be able to cut out early?  Oh, and for a piece of interesting information, ask teachers what they think about the last quarter of school year after standardized testing.  They'll tell you it's their favorite time of year.  Why?  Because they get to use teachable moments without the threat of high-stakes testing over their heads.  They can evaluate the individual needs of the students in their classes and adjust instruction accordingly--covering the gaps that students have (even if it's not a standard for their grade that year!) and accelerating where appropriate.  They get to introduce literature, current events, social justice, etc. into their classrooms. Sigh. I wish my children's classes could be like that all year long.

My children are more than a single score on a standardized test.

Especially when no one even seems to know what the "score to get" is going to be. If I were a betting person, I'd bet the "meets standards" score is going to be lower than most parents would be comfortable seeing on their child's grade card.  Don't get me wrong.  I want to know how my children are doing in school. I think assessment is a very important part of a well-developed teaching method.  But more importantly, I want them to develop a lifelong love of learning.  And I want to know that they're leaving the walls of their brick and mortar school buildings in June knowing more than they did the previous August.  Otherwise, what is the purpose?  None of my research to this point assures me that Common Core data collection is going to give me that information.  

My children's schools, teachers, and administrators are more than the collective percentage of students who "meet standards" on high stakes tests in their schools.

I've administered a decent number of these kinds of tests in my day,  I've looked at different testing engines, taken practice tests, and researched what kinds of questions are in their test banks.  I have never, not once, seen a question that asks a student about his/her relationship with the human being who invests in his/her education every day.  Even though we know from brain research that we retain information better long-term when we have a personal relationship with which to tie the material to.   There is no question on any of those tests that addresses my experience of meeting one of my son's teachers for the first time at Back to School Night.  Her first words after hearing "I'm Nelson's mom," were "Oh!  You just moved here from Kansas.  How is he adjusting?  Is he doing okay here in California?"  It comes as no surprise to me that she is one of his favorites and that he learns more in her class than in some of his others.  Common Core data collection isn't asking about the hours that our principal spent with students and families outside of school offering support and assistance when tragedy struck  our high school a few weekends ago, for example.  In my opinion, assessing a school's effectiveness by means of high-stakes testing is not only inaccurate and ineffective, it's lazy.

Why should teachers, schools, and districts be the only ones in the hot seat?

Yes.  Good teachers who do their jobs well are a huge part of successful student learning.  But so is having a student's basic needs met.  So is being read to and conversed with in one's formative years.  So is having (a) responsible adult(s) in the home who do things like regulate screen time and TV watching, help with homework, enforce bedtimes, etc.  If we're going to hold people accountable for the education process in this country--and I think we should--then shouldn't we hold everyone who plays a significant role in it accountable? Personally, I would be furious if there were some standardized test my children had to take to evaluate my effectiveness as a parent with regards to my part in contributing to the success of their education.  Yet, I'm just as responsible not to leave my children behind as any teacher.  Maybe more so.  My opinion is:  if it's not okay for it to be done to me, then it's sure not okay for it to be done to them.

Is this a good use of our educational dollars?

In light of school budget and money crises all over the country, I have to wonder how much money is being spent on Common Core testing. Money that could probably be better used elsewhere.

It's my legal right to opt out, and what am I telling my state and my country when I don't?

By having my children participate in Common Core data collection, I feel like I'm telling the state of California and the United States of America that I'm fine with the way students and schools are being assessed for effectiveness.  And right now, I'm just not.

I believe in American education.  I believe that we will eventually figure out a way to effectively and fairly measure students' educational progress and school quality.  I commend the people who are working hard to try to get this done.  I hope that at each turn, we're learning more, and adjusting, and changing, and improving the system.

But at this point, I don't think Common Core Data collection is the best we can do.