If you’re a parent of an 8th grader in Rochester, you may have received a letter from the Rochester Middle school last month, informing you that your child has been “selected” to take the NAEP mathematics, reading or science assessments. These assessments were to begin on February 10th, but because of all the snow days and delays, we have had this month, they have not yet been carried out. On the surface, participating in these assessments may seem harmless to your child, and possibly beneficial to the schools. After all the National Assessment of Educational Progress have been around since 1969. If you were born in the 60’s or after, you too probably took these assessments with your trusty #2 pencils, intentionally filling out the ovals with answers you knew and playing Eenie,, Meenie, Mynie, Mo with the ones you didn’t. So what is the big deal now? Why am I opting my child out? One reason is data collection. Although data collection in schools seems like it would be a good idea in order to gauge what our kids know, and what they don't, and generally give us a “Nation’s Report Card,” the data collected is not exclusive to pertaining with academics.
Students are asked a series of “background” questions on each subject. They will be asked, what race? Gender? Parent’s educational background? (How much education did your mother and father receive?) What region do you live in? (NE, SE, Central, and West? There used to be 8 questions to determine this, now there is 3). They ask 4 questions to get information on your home (family) environment. Do you live in a small town or city? Does your family get a newspaper? Is there an encyclopedia in your home? How many books are in your home? Do you get magazines? How much TV do you watch? How many days of school did you miss last month? Did you go to preschool before kindergarten? Do you use a computer at home? Do you talk about studies at home? How many times have you changed schools? How long have you lived in the US? How much time do you spend on homework each day? (BTW, my child has not brought HW home in months.) How many pages a day do you read both in school and for homework? How much education do you expect to receive? It only takes a handful of data points to pinpoint who your child is. Less if your child’s ID# is at the top of the page.
In 2012, there was a 47-page report created by a committee of ‘educated professionals’ to the Governing Board called “NAEP Background Questions: An Under Used National Resource.” In it, outlines the plans to coordinate assessments to Common Core State Standards, enhance the scope of the background questions, implement policy initiatives, and have more control over what is done with the information collected.
By 2017, the NAEP Governing Board is planning to have these assessments computerized.
These background questions are not used to measure academic success. All this data is stored and there are promises of security and privacy. Really? How is that working out for those that have used debit cards at Target or Home Depot in the last few years? What about all the subscribers of Anthem Blue? Tens of millions of Anthem customers have been breached. (Don’t worry, they don’t know that you have strep last month. The hackers only have access to your name, birthday. Medical IDs, social security numbers, street addresses, email addresses, employment information, and income details) Tens of millions, including myself and my family, are now subject to identify fraud. Data collection agencies should not make promises that they cannot keep.
Another reason why we are opting out, is the excessive testing, that is now the trend in our schools. Weeks are taken up with testing, and when they are testing, they are not being instructed, not learning. What happen to the days when a teacher would assign a chapter in a book? They would read, and go over chapter in class, discuss, quiz, assign homework to reinforce what was taught in class. Then, at the end of a week or so, the teacher would give a test on what was taught? Teachers aren’t allowed to teach that way anymore. They now have the CCSS (Commie) which they have to teach to, and their employment evaluations will depend on student performance. This is why you hear the phrase, “Teaching to the test.”
Which brings me to reason #3, why we are opting out of these assessments. Push Back. This is my way having a say in my child’s education. Even though I am on the School Board, I have little control over what the administration decides is important for our kids to participate in. If you would like to print out an opt form. You can print one from here. I added NAEP on the form I passed in. If you are going to opt them out, do it today. Last Friday, Feb 13th, I was told by the school, that they didn’t know when the ‘state,’ was planning to reschedule. It could be any day.
http://www.thomasmore.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Student-Privacy-Protection-Request-Opt-Out-Request-Form1.pdf
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