Your child’s data is feeding the machine. If you REFUSE to allow it, you protect your children and their education.
http://mcorfield.blogspot.com/2015/01/qotd-nj-boe-president-drops-bombshell.html?m=1
https://ellie4education.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/nys-ela-math-exams-grades-3-8-refuse-refuse-refuse/
Why parents use their freedom to refuse. If someone asks you these questions or makes these comments, here are some replies written by #stopcommoncore activists across the country.
1. Why buck the system?
The greatest tragedies in history have occurred when people failed to speak up. Really, the question is, why would anyone let their kids take common core, data mining tests? They serve no purpose. Allegedly, they evaluate teachers, *maybe*. This is a pretty sorry and flawed way to evaluate them. It’s the conformity, complacency, and go with the flow perspective that allowed this shady, unwanted and unnecessary federal take over of education with this garbage curriculum to begin with. It needs to stop with the parents. These children trust us. They’re little, for such a short time. They need love and nurturing, not rigor and unfairness. Pushing them so hard and for what, to allegedly evaluate teachers? Common core and testing do not push children to do their best for their own benefit. A class room test for a grade of material understanding is reasonable, tried and true, and fair. But a test that continues for hours, that parents never see, teachers don’t grade, and which counts for nothing against or for the child’s grade is wrong. Worse yet, teachers are under a signed gag order to keep these tests secret. Preposterous. Only dead fish go with the flow. Take a stand, and remember, you never know who you’ll inspire.
http://mcorfield.blogspot.com/2015/02/12-questions-every-parent-must-ask.html
2. Life is unfair, our kids don’t need coddling.
Does anyone think children aren’t aware that life is unfair? Or hard? Don’t they have daily experiences that teach them about winning and losing? Why would any parent send their children into an obsessive testing environment with no value or benefit measure for them? Why would one send them into a test designed by CORPORATIONS, not by teachers or child development experts? Why would someone allow a child to be part of a testing culture that doesn’t recognize that children are not mini adults, without prefrontal cortex development enough to endure this? What’s the breaking point in this madness, where is the line drawn?
3. I don’t understand these tests and the issue here. What’s the big deal?
This is not about how we “feel” about tests. This is about what this standardized test is: a test designed to fail 70% of the participants. There is no value added to your child’s education that lies within these tests. By allowing your child to take these tests you are condoning not just the way they came into existence, but aligning with a system DESIGNED FOR OUR YOUTH TO FAIL. How do the REFORMERS justify that? Testing has always been around, and we accept that our children to take basic tests. But not THESE tests, that hoard DATA on students, in a mad race to pigeon hole the children to allegedly create a GLOBAL WORKFORCE, and make rich people even richer off our tax dollars. Teachers spend hours prepping the kids for tests, and students lose their love of learning. That’s what school has become under this “teach to the test” ideology.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/11/18/common-core-test-group-projects-widespread-failure/
4. Explain the tests again? I stopped reading twenty minutes ago.
Can you read this commentary and still say “yes, I’m going to have my child participate anyway”? Key point: these tests mean nothing. The “SCORES” aren’t even received until AFTER a child is promoted to the next level. The CUT SCORES are ever changing and artificial, and the tests take weeks, often from 70 to 90 minutes a day depending on the grade. These tests are over 500 minutes long in a two week time span–much more if your child has special needs. The tests have questionable product placement and also embedded test of the test, (field test) questions, for the benefit of the testing company.
Teachers are not allowed to see the tests, before or after, and the teachers also never get to know how your child individually performed. Teachers receive a few random, aggregated questions for their grade level, according to the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION’S choosing. The teachers will never actually know if the questions they were provided were truly on the assessments, because they can never see the tests.
The children’s test scores are hinged to teachers evaluations. If a child does poorly for any host of reasons on these “rigged tests” in a “rigged game” where the state can pick winners and losers–that teachers evaluation suffers. How is poverty not taken into account? Note that teacher evaluations are part of their overall HEDI rating. These ratings have been dryly reduced to: Highly effective, Effective, Developing, and Ineffective. If a quality teacher (under these new laws) does not meet her AYP and receives two Ineffective ratings in a row, that teacher must go through a battery of professional development training in order to bring their HEDI up to at least Developing. This is happening to teachers who were previously OUTSTANDING, and these measures against the teacher are coming from an unelected, faceless, appointed, body of state agents who have never taught in a public school classroom in their lives. A teacher who was once worth their weight in gold can be HEDI rated right out of a job now, even if they have tenure.
Obsessive testing has ensured that our children are data mined and their personally identifiable information is released to the state, along with their test scores. Recorded along with their names, date of birth, religion, socio-economic background, demographics, bus stop, gender, disciplinary record, family background, are over 400 data points on each child, which is placed in a hackable virtual cloud, and stored indefinitely. The child to teacher connection is one of the biggest pieces of data they are after to analyze. The data is then shared with third party vendors who use that data to create next generation technology and software, and entered into the school systems state mandated data bases–(yes they are law–you can thank your elected legislators–beginning with Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan and Senator John Flanagan–both Chairs of the education committee). Third party vendors will be making money off your tax dollars while at the same time using your children. They all will be profiting along with the publishing companies and Bill Gates–the billionaire who subsidized all these pet projects with his so called benevolent philanthropic money to the tune of millions of dollars.
Children will be pigeon holed, learning only what the FACELESS, unelected, self appointed EDUCATION REFORMERS want them to learn–how much–but no more and no less–than the modules. The standards are a narrowing down of the curriculum. Teachers are teaching from SCRIPTED MODULES from a new website they are being forced to use (which was paid for by our tax dollars and Bill Gates, without teacher input) called ENGAGENY. The modules are terribly errored, and they are scripted, full of age inappropriate materials, fraught with negativity, socially charged subject matter, issues that are so out of the realm of a child’s understanding, that they cannot possibly relate. These new tests, and this new way of learning, and these corporate sponsors and partners and share holders, were never a part of the previous school equation. We hope that parents refuse the tests, because it’s the only way to cut off the data supply and the data supply is what drives the profit. That, along with controlling the future global workforce, is how common core came to be! Don’t give them your children as an unpaid workforce.
5. How else will they evaluate the teachers? What is wrong with this plan?
HOW do we effectively rate teachers? Let’s go to FINLAND since that seems to be one of the countries we are modeling ourselves after. Finland… population 5 million, poverty rate 5%, where teachers are treated almost in the same respect as physicians. They NEVER ask the question they ask how they can rate their teachers. Shouldn’t that measurement be under LOCAL control? Should we not be reviewing the effectiveness of a teacher based on the actual curriculum the students learned? Who is okay with a 5th grade test having 11th grade level questions? How does this measure educator effectiveness? Perhaps because that’s what the super glossy ad created by Microsoft and Koch brothers money falsely claimed. It’s untrue. These tests are age and content inappropriate, as is the material these teachers are forced to spend hours of valuable classroom time reviewing. Teachers spend the year ignoring what they know about educating and childhood development, and instead now teach a script. The material they now use was bought by Bill Gates, and created by a bunch of stuffed shirts in a board room. Teachers were left out of the equation. This is what happens when big business is allowed to buy educational policy. Teachers want you to opt out. They’re under a gag order to keep that fact silent. Want to know how teachers feel and why they are hiding this? See below:
https://stopcommoncorenys.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/district-manipulation-of-test-refusals/
Districts claiming loss of funding are WRONG:
http://www.fairtest.org/why-you-can-boycott-testing-without-fear
6. Why should I care?
Our children are being used. The elite are cashing in on our children, while their children are in independent schools not subject to common core or these high stakes tests. It’s just for us “Common” folk, to be used as a corporate project. They admit they will not even know if “this education stuff will work for at least ten years.” Cogs in the Gates globalist machine.
7. Is this legal? I mean, my kid is doing fine. Right?
No. And it is not about if your kids can do well, or takes issue with it. Refusing is about sending a message, and showing our children they should stand up for what is just. Remember the Constitution. Federal education is not legal. We are not okay with the illegal circumvention of a National educational standard by using the words “NGA and Modules” instead of PRESIDENT and CURRICULUM? This overreach is not constitutional.
8. So, why opt out?
Opt out so your children aren’t taking the tests because they’re meaningless, stress inducing, a waste of time, money, energy, and resources. Our children still have responsibility, including homework, chores, and family. Let us raise their self esteem. There are plenty of ways to learn and many tests in life. Your child will be taking Regents exams, and SAT’s, and driver’s ed tests, to name a few. There are plenty of meaningful tests and lessons your children will face in life. These are not some of those. Will you send the message to the higher ups that you will not approve or allow their flawed erroneous measure of children, teachers, and American families? American families do not want to emulate the Chinese model. That is not what we want for our children.
It is our job to fight this. Edu-DEformers are wrong.
http://www.livingindialogue.com/beyond-edge-climbing-mt-edreform/
http://www.salon.com/2013/06/03/instead_of_a_war_on_teachers_how_about_one_on_poverty/
https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/2014/12/28/new-jersey-blogger-mel-katz-gives-all-the-reasons-for-opt-out-to-superintendent/
http://www.texasobserver.org/walter-stroup-standardized-testing-Pearson
For resources on how to REFUSE tests, and remember, it’s REFUSING, not “opting out”, see these links.
http://www.stopccssinnys.com/Refuse_The_Test.html.
http://www.nysape.org/refusing-the-test-resources.html
http://whatiscommoncore.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/yes-you-can-opt-out-of-common-core-tests/
http://unitedoptout.com/state-by-state-opt-out-2/new-york/
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7zWG3NmQNCUWlFYQXRaR05JbGJYdDF4UVNFMWZHck5TTTRF/preview?pli=1
Familiarize yourself with the term “sit and stare” and be sure this is not your district’s policy. This is unethical and absolutely NOT MANDATED by NYSED.
Even Pearson says NO SIT AND STARE:
This just in from one of our Badass Parents performing exemplary due diligence!
My son’s school is telling us that, though we have refused the test on his behalf (he is autistic and is already suffering from a high level of anxiety daily), he may be forced to sit at a computer and do nothing for the duration of the ten or so hours of PARCC testing (he’s in fifth grade).
My understanding from your website, however, is that non-testing students may not be in the same room as children who are taking the test.
Will you please clarify this for me so that I can show it to the Superintendent of our district?
Thank you very much,
XXXXXX
PARCC’s Response (within half an hour!):
Dear xxxx,
Thank you for contacting PARCC Customer Support.
I do apologize for the inconvenience and the confusion on this issue. A student would be considered a non-testing studen,t if the student is not taking the test. If a parent like yourself refuses the test, your child is considered a non-testing student. For security reasons, the non-testing student or students should not be in the same room as testing students. If you need any further assistance, please contact us again.
As always, thank you for contacting PARCC Customer Support.
Thank you,
Stephanie
PARCC Customer Support
parcc@support.pearson.com
1-888-493-9888
Also see:
https://stopcommoncorenys.wordpress.com/2014/12/12/district-manipulation-of-test-refusals/
stopcommoncorenys 
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