Boy sits out state tests

Dad says teaching too geared toward exams

A Fayetteville father who teaches in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas kept his fourth-grade son out of school during Benchmark testing this week.

Jason Endacott, assistant professor of social studies education, objects to state tests that are used to evaluate campuses and school districts, and to the intense focus on preparing students to take them, he said. A majority of the schoolwork Jackson, 10, takes home is labeled “test prep,” Endacott said.

“It would be better for him in the long-run if this situation didn’t exist,” Endacott said.

Endacott wrestled with the decision but was encouraged by a growing number of parents in places like Denver, Seattle and New York who have refused to have theirchildren take the state tests. He also learned about the nonprofit United Opt Out, which supports parents and teachers who oppose state tests.

The number of students opting out is hard to quantify. Some contact groups like United Opt Out, while others act on their own.

Statewide Benchmark testing began Monday and ended Friday. All public school students in third through eighth grades tested through Thursday, while students in fifth and seventh grades continued testing through Friday.

Arkansas laws and policies do not give parents the option of letting their children opt out of assessments mandated by state and federal law, said Suzanne Knowles, public school program adviser for student assessment for the Department of Education.

State laws and EducationDepartment rules say students “shall participate” in the state’s testing program. The regulations require that students not advance to the next grade if they have not passed a Benchmark or Endof-Course assessment or have not participated in a remediation program, Knowles said.

Districts provide the remediation and requirement students to participate in it, Knowles said.

Fayetteville School District campuses did not have excessive absences this week during Benchmark testing, said Kay Jacoby, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction, assessment and accountability.

“The issue of parents intentionally withholding their students from attending school during Benchmark testing is relatively new for our state,” Jacoby said. “It may become a growing trend.I know that this is happening in large numbers in other states.”

One requirement of the state’s schools-accountability system is that 95 percent of eligible students be tested, she said. When students are absent for the testing, the common practice is for students to take the test upon returning to school. If students are not tested, campus officials have to explain to the state why, Jacoby said.

If a school tests less than 95 percent of its students, it receives a lower grade in its annual report card that is released to the public, she said.

“Parents have every right to decide that their child will not take state-mandated standardized tests,” she said. “There are no adverse consequences to the child for not participating in the state-required tests.”

She said campuses have enough data on student performance that she doubts a principal would refuse to advance a student solely for having no Benchmark test score.

Jacoby hopes the state will provide schools guidance for situations when parents refuse testing.

“We would appreciate parents communicating with the campus in these situations,” she said. “There are reasonable ways to handle situations like this that do not pit the local school against the parent.”

Endacott said he doesn’t mind standardized tests that are used to evaluate student achievement and help teachers focus their instruction. He doesn’t like the punitive nature of state assessments, like the Benchmark Exam.

Endacott said he thinks state-testing systems have encouraged schools to devote too much of a school day to math and literacy, which doesn’t leave enough time for other subjects, such as science, social studies, art and music. He said he objects to the money spent on materials and training designed to improve test scores.

This fall, schools will implement the new Common Core State Standards, which has added to the concern of some parents across the country, said Peggy Robertson of Centennial, Colo. She is one of six educators from across the country who started United Opt Out about four years ago.

“We know that these Common Core tests are going to be incredibly difficult,” Robertson said. “We know we’re going to fail these tests.”

Robertson, who has taught for 17 years and is a literacy coach in an elementary school, has refused for her ninth-grade son to participate in state testing in Colorado for two years.

Robertson explained that the ultimate goal of United Opt Out is to end efforts by some policymakers to apply a business model that relies on data - test scores - to evaluating schools.

She said she is concernedthat businesses profit from the sale of curriculum, training programs and technology that schools buy with public money to raise test scores.

Schools that repeatedly perform poorly on the tests are considered low-performing and face penalties that in some places have included firing a significant portion of the staff or closing a campus, she said.

The U.S. Department of Education reported that about 20 percent of 1,309 low-performing U.S. schools that were awarded federal grants in 2010-11 and 2011-12 chose a model of improvement that required replacing the principal and rehiring no more than 50 percent of the teaching staff. In that time period, about 6 percent of the schools closed or restarted under new management, such as charter schools.

About three-quarters of the schools chose a broader improvement model, such as changing instruction, but that didn’t require significant staff changes.

United Opt Out wants to get enough parents who refuse the testing to shift the focus of improving schools to giving teachers autonomy in their classrooms, reducing class sizes and establishing services to help poor children.

The founders of United Opt Out met through social media and started with a Facebook group named “Opt Out of the State Test” that to date has 9,687 members, Robertson said. The group also created a website, but it is was hacked and is being rebuilt, she said. United Opt Out also has served as a starting point for other groups that have formed to oppose state testing.

United Opt Out created 50 guides, one for each state, to assist parents in refusing to have their children participate in standardized testing. The sixpage guide for Arkansas lists standardized tests that students take, describes laws pertaining to testing, and discusses the options and potential consequences of refusing to take the state test.

Before Benchmark testing, Endacott told the principal at Butterfield Trail Elementary School in Fayetteville that his son would not participate.

Jackson did not go to school in the mornings when students were testing, but returned after lunch. When he wasn’t at school, Jackson visited educational attractions, including War Eagle Cavern and Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park, his father said. He wrote an essay about investing for a national competition.

Jackson described not taking the test as “awesome,” but thought his father’s decision was strange because his father usually wants him to do his best on all tests.

Endacott said he considered refusing to let his son take state tests for more than a year.

“Last year I felt like if I was doing this I was sort of alone,” Endacott said. “I’ve come to realize that’s not the case. More people agree with me. More people are willing to do something about it.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 04/12/2014

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