According to Shelby Perea in the Albuquerque Journal, in the final weeks of Governor Susana Martinez’ tenure, the state Public Education Department is proposing a number of rule changes, including for school accountability and interventions. If approved, the potential regulatory shift “would put parts of...
Utah’s State School Board’s internal auditors are planning to conduct an audit to “determine why growing numbers of Utah schoolchildren have opted out of standardized testing in recent years,” Marjorie Cortez writes for KSL news. The state’s opt-out rate was a “sticking point” in winning...
Newsday’s Lane Filler writes that the “federal government requires that students in third through eighth grades take standardized tests in math and English each year, and requires that districts and schools have at least 95 percent of their eligible students take those tests.” At the...
“Just a few short years ago, there were real questions about whether Congress would ditch annual, standardized assessments as part of a makeover of the nation’s main K-12 education law,” writes Alyson Klein in Education Week. “At the same time, parents were increasingly choosing to opt...
According to Benjamin Wood in the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah schools are “poised to take a hit from parents who excuse their children from year-end tests.” After several requests for flexibility under ESSA’s participation rate provisions, the Utah Board of Education has “agreed to count...
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...
According to Education Dive, the opt-out movement “appears to be slowly fading” as “states gain more control of testing requirements” under ESSA; in New York, for example, where the “opt-out movement has been the strongest,” the opt-out rate has dropped 2 percentage points in just the...
The Wall Street Journal examined next steps for the opt-out movement, which “lost a major battle” with the implementation of ESSA and continues to challenge the 95 percent participation rule. Under the new law, states are required to test 95% of students so they do...
State Senator Joseph A. Griffo called on U.S. Secretary of Education John King to reconsider a proposed regulation that would “punish school districts for having too many students opt-out of standardized tests.” He cites that this move contradicts ESSA which he argued should “empower states...
Truth-Out.org analyzed the impact that ESSA will have on the “opt-out” movement. The article notes that Secretary King is “not respecting the voices of parents, teachers and students; doubling down on threats to financially punish students for boycotting tests; and digging in his heels to...
