Mother hopes others will opt out of standardized testing (CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Ross Levitt and Susan Candiotti, CNN
March 21, 2011 5:52 p.m. EDT

State College, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A Pennsylvania mother has decided she does not want her two children to take the two-week-long standardized tests given by her state as part of the federal No Child Left Behind law. And she hopes other parents will do the same.

Michele Gray's sons -- Ted Rosenblum, 11, and John Michael Rosenblum, 9 -- did independent study the week of March 14 while their classmates were filling in hundreds of bubbles in classrooms with doors marked, "Quiet. Testing in Progress."

Gray says the only legal exemption that would allow her kids to sit out the tests was a religious objection. So that's what she did.

But Gray says her concerns go well beyond religion. "The more I look at standardized tests, the more I realize that we have, as parents, been kind of sold a bill of goods."

She says the tests are not accurate measures of accomplishment, create undue anxiety for students and are used to punish schools.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/20/pennsylvania.school.testing/index.html?hpt=Sbin#




So no matter how well grounded your objections, no logical argument, no evidence or counterevidence, no stand on principle is good enough to get out of standardized testing -- but an appeal to religion, with no logic, evidence, or principle except "God said so" does the trick? Personally, I think that speaks volumes about what's wrong here. It's not the teachers, it's not the students, it's the policymakers.

[Happyhippychick]

1. I applaud that she got out of it no matter what method she had to use. But I agree with your

premise.

[phantom power]

2. It's not the policy makers, it's the deference to religion baked into our culture.

The fact that we have "religious exceptions" is a symptom, not a cause.

[xchrom]

3. recommend

[earthside]

4. I've opt out my daughter ...

... for the past six years in Colorado.

It is insane here -- three weeks, three days a week, three hours or more each of those days just for testing. Then there are the weeks of test preparation, plus the testing pep rallies, the posters in the hallways, etc.

And, no doubt the curriculum has been narrowed and teachers' freedom and creativity has been stifled all for the sake of the test.

The administrators and principals seem to love this high stakes testing, they can't stop talking about "student data" ... data, data, data. Of course, politicians on both sides like the testing -- for the right they prove the schools are failing and for the 'left' it shows the need for more centralized control of the curriculum.

It is very disappointing to see Pres. Obama and Arne Duncan so fully buying into the Bush-Spellings-Gates-Broad education policy.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Not all states allow opting out

Mine doesn't.

But yes, parents should be allowed to opt out.

[MicheleGray]

6. Religious exemption

If I might jump in and explain a bit. I have been accused of using a religious loophole to get my kids out of testing. But when I actually thought about it, this issue really does have religious implications for anyone with a strong sense of social justice. The way NCLB affects children is wrong. It takes money from and resources from those who need them most. It hurts teachers who have given their lives to helping kids. And it punishes children with special needs, the most vulnerable members of our society.

The law in Pennsylvania is written such that any parent who finds the "assessment in conflict with their religion" must be given an exemption, no questions asked. So, in theory, a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster could claim a religious exemption. One mom in our group is an atheist, but she got the exemption by claiming it was in conflict with her moral beliefs. I called the Department of Education in Harrisburg to get clarification. I asked how to handle a medical reason, like undo stress on a child, and I was advised to take the religious exemption.

[roody]

7. If you are in third grade, you better know what

onomatopoeia is.