Common Core State Tests: I Refuse.

[Geee]

American Thinker:

The collusion between big government, big business and private foundations conspired to develop a system of educational reform linking Common Core standards with special testing groups (SBAC and PARCC) to evaluate the implementation of Common Core. In the original federal legislation in 2009 (Race To The Top), SBAC and PARCC were created by the federal government with 365 million dollars for the express purpose of assessing the teaching of Common Core State Standards.The legislation did not explicitly name Common Core, but it used Common Core language. As the nation has learned more about Common Core and the SBAC and PARCC tests, the more people are shocked to find that Common Core means more than a change in just educational standards. It means loss of parental rights, loss of local control, and loss of accountability, transparency and flexibility. This is unacceptable.

 

I refused to allow my daughter to take the Common Core aligned SBAC test last year and I am doing it again this year. As children prepare for the Common Core tests, individually parents across America are also refusing these tests in growing numbers. Last year, over 60,000 students opted out in New York State. This year, that number will be bigger, as in other states. The conflict between administrators and parents is growing because school administrators around the nation are doubling down on despicable practices in order to force students to take the illegal, useless, intrusive and destructive SBAC and PARCC. Evidence shows that public officials and administrators continue to lie to parents. In Connecticut, the governor publically lied to a mother saying that she did not have the right to opt out of the tests.The State Commissioner of Education in Connecticut, and perhaps other states, instructed administrators to tell parents the lie that their children must take the test. This memo describes in table format exactly what to say to parents for each rebuttal. There are many more examples of parents being bullied in this manner. While many parents are troubled by Common Core, they admit they don’t fully understand it. In this way they are easy to control. Even if they want to fight back by refusing the test, they hesitate.

[Valin]

Parents Stage Common Core Sit-Out

Mar. 2 2015

 

This week several states test whether their students are meeting common core standards—but some students are sitting out in protest, the New York Times reports. Students who choose to sit out won’t see serious punishments, but if enough don’t take the test, the school as a whole could face consequences, like lost funds or amped up monitoring. It’s not clear exactly how many people will be in on this ‘sit-out,’ but what’s particularly notable is the assortment of coalitions sympathetic to their cause:

 

(Snip)

 

The left dislikes it because the tests provide fodder for evaluating teachers and the right dislikes it because they are suspicious of uniform federal standards foisted on different states. That latter objection seems right to us—evaluation is good, but should be locally generated—but the more interesting point the article raises is how bipartisan this intense grassroots opposition is. In a polarized country, perhaps common core has achieved the miraculous feat of uniting unions and parents afraid of a “federal takeover”of education. That suggests in turn just how difficult it has become to solve problems on the federal level. As we remarked on another occasion, “America is too big and its citizens are too diverse for one-size-fits-all solutions to some of our culture war issues.” If the common core movement is any guide, that may be true for education policy, as well.