Two Items of Major Interest

One is an opt-out letter to refuse for your child to do state testing. Parents may have many reasons to opt their student out and it is allowed by law in Washington State to do so.


The other item is a webinar from the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy;

Join us on Monday, May 6 at 8 PM ET; 7 PM CT; 6PM MT. Find out how you can ensure your children's personal data including their test scores are NOT sold by the College Board or ACT.

Here's a registration link.

Comments

evergreen said…
At the top of the form are several bullet points, including these two:
- 10th grade students who do not participate can not use the Smarter Balanced Assessment or Washington Access to Instruction & Measurement as a graduation pathway (https://www.sbe.wa.gov/our-work/graduation-pathway-options).
- Lack of assessment scores may impact course selection in 11th and 12th grade.

What does this mean? Sounds like potential for negative impact on students who opt out.
4/24/24, 10:06 AM
Anonymous said…
actually, refusing participation in state assessments is not included in the legislation. OSPI and local school districts have policies around refusal for tests and other school activities.

Misconceptions
4/26/24, 6:12 AM
Melissa Westbrook said…
Evergreen, yes, SPS tries to punish kids for opting out. I would say that I doubt - given their equity views - that they could kept almost any kid out of any class.

I also note that SPS used to try to deny admission to HCC if you didn't take the test. I'm pretty sure someone could have sued over that but given how they are wrecking the program, does it matter?
4/26/24, 9:24 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesday Open Thread

The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested.  It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio.  (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Read more

Breaking It Down: Where the District Might Close Schools

Update 2: an absolutely fabulous interactive map made by parent Beth Day (@thebethocracy on Twitter - she covers Board meetings and is fun to read).   end of update    Update 1: Mea culpa, I did indeed get Decatur and Thornton Creek mixed up. Thanks to all for the correction. end of update   I suspect some who read this post will be irate. Why do this? Because the district seems very hellbent on this effort with no oversight skid marks from the Board.    To clearly state - I do not believe that closing 20 schools is a good idea. I think they hit on 20 because they thought it might bring in the most savings. But the jury is still out on the savings because the district has not shown its work nor its data. I suspect closing schools and THEN leasing/renting them is the big plan but that means the district really has to keep the buildings up.   But this district, with its happy talk about "well-resourced schools" is NOT acknowledging the pain and yes, gr...
Read more

Education News Roundup

From the ever-amusing Washington Policy Center : Vouchers are Pell Grants for students under 18.  Vouchers are no different than Pell Grants or GI benefits, except the money goes to the families of students younger than age 18.  Except they are. Pell Grants were created to help needy students and that's not really the goal of the voucher program.  The Pell grant website does have a couple of great studies on why low-income students drop out before finishing their higher ed and what makes a difference.
Read more