Opt Out

     This week school districts have administered state ELA exams for grades 3-8. Test mods have been accounted for, rooms have been stripped of cheating materials, and proctoring assignments have been given. I’ve followed the guidelines provided in the handy yellow booklet from the state – reading and rereading the list of banned electronics to anxious students. Some of them complain about New York State while others just want to be done already. Many of their peers have opted out of taking the ELA tests and sit in a room competing homework or napping.

     One of my colleagues emailed out an inspirational poem yesterday. She related that one of her student broke down during the exam. It kills her to see students get so frustrated with high stakes standardized testing. She needed a reminder why we’re in education. Not because of exams or APPR scores – but for the kids. Each one is unique and not always comparable by the same measure.

So here I am, one exam down, more to go next week. More students are grumbling about having to take three more days of testing and the opt out crew is growing. If all goes according to students’ plans, my little test mod group will get even smaller.

     Overall, I wonder if this form of protest will be effective. In fact, how many students actually know why they’re opting out (refusing)? To many of them, it’s just a way to get out of an exam, to take a nap. With this kind of attitude, will the right people be convinced that the new wave of educational reform  is unfounded?  To be clear, I am not against this protest. It’s my hope that state lawmakers listen and think about what kind of “reform” that is being put into place. After all, education has become a highly political mess. I doubt that all of this is what Horace Mann had in mind during the first half of the 1800s.

"If we do not prepare children to become good citizens; -if we do not develop their capacities, if we do not enrich their minds with knowledge, imbue their hearts with love of truth and duty...then our republic must go down to destruction, as others have gone before it; and mankind must weep through another vast cycle of sin and suffering before the dawn of a better era can arise upon the world"  Life and Works of Horace Mann, Volume 3, By Horace Mann, Felix Pécant