Opt-Outs under ESSA
June 4, 2018
Education Week answers the question: “What are the federal guidelines for ‘testing transparency?’ Schools are mandated to get 95 percent participation, but how is that possible is [sic] we tell parents of their opt out rights?” The answer? The law “says that states and schools must test all of their students, just like under No Child Left Behind.” But under NCLB, if a school didn’t hit 95 percent participation, both for the student population as a whole and subgroups of students, it would have automatically been deemed a failure. But under ESSA, “states must figure low testing participation into school ratings, but just how to do that is totally up to them.”