Why & How to Opt Out of the SBAC Test

The purpose of this article is to explain why the new Washington state Common Core test, called SBAC (pronounced S-BACK) is extremely harmful to our children - and provide you with specific information on how you can opt your kids out of this monstrosity. New York students have been dealing with Common Core tests for a couple of years now. Here is how one New York student described the Common Core test she had to take. 


During the past 20 years, Washington tax payers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a series of disastrous and harmful high stakes tests. These included the WASL test and the MSP test. Look at how one Third Grade child described the WASL test: 


The same corporate interests (and even many of the same people... see here) who produced these prior test disasters are back again with the SBAC test – looking to make even more money by harming even more of our children. Shocking as it may seem, the SBAC test is much worse than any previous test. SBAC is the first test that has been specifically designed to unfairly label more than half of the students in Washington state as failures. Just look at the following chart which was posted on the SBAC and OSPI websites in the fall of 2014:


Only the blue and green bars are considered “passing.” Levels 1 and 2 are considered to be “failing.” So the SBAC test will declare 61% of Washington's 80,000 Third Graders to be failures this summer. That is more than 48,000 children whose lives will be permanently harmed by being labeled failures. For comparison, the prior WASL test only labeled 31% of Third Graders as failures in 2008 and the MSP only labeled 35% as failures in 2013.


What makes the SBAC failure rate even more despicable is that Washington State students are among the highest achieving students of any students in the nation and even in the world. In 2013, the national average math score for 4^th graders was 241. Washington students scored 246 – one of the highest average scores the nation. 86% of Washington Fourth Graders scored at Basic (Grade Level) or Above on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math test. The NAEP test is the longest running and best researched test in the nation. So only 14% of our 4^th Graders were below grade level in 2013. For more information on how well Washington state students have done on national tests, see here. 

Check out this chart:


Notice that the failure rate on the 2015 SBAC test (61%) will be more than four times higher than the percent of students who are below grade level on the 2013 NAEP test (14%). Put another way, of Washington's 80,000 Third Graders, only 10,000 are below grade level. But 48,000 will be unfairly labeled as failures by the SBAC test. This means that 38,000 Third Graders who are actually at or above grade level will be told they are failures! This is a crime against our children. Our kids are not failures. It is the SBAC test that is a failure! The reason the SBAC test is a failure is because it is unfairly labeling students as failures who are at or above grade level. 

As a leader of Opt Out Washington, I have conducted meetings across the state on how and why parents can and should opt their kids out of the unfair SBAC Common Core test. At these meetings, parents often bring their own stories of how the SBAC test has harmed their kids. At a recent Opt Out meeting, a mom spoke tearfully about her Third Grade son who became depressed and attempted to kill himself after failing the Third Grade SBAC Common Core math test.



Since the introduction of developmentally inappropriate Common Core standards and unfair Common Core high stakes tests, there has been a 40 percent increase in the suicide rate of elementary school students in the US and a 20 percent increase in the suicide rate of high school students. Specifically, according to the US Census, in 2000, 205 elementary school children ages 5 to 14 committed suicide. In 2013, 286 children committed suicide for an increase of 40%. In 2000, 3,988 young adults ages 15 to 24 committed suicide. In 2013, 4,741 young adults committed suicide for an increase of 19%. In total, for ages 5 through 24, in 2000, before No Child Left Behind, 4193 kids committed suicide. In 2013, the total number of kids who killed themselves was 5,027 kids for an increase of 834 needless deaths per year or a 20% increase.



http://crazynormaltheclassroomexpose.com/2015/06/22/are-the-high-stakes-tests-linked-to-the-so-called-common-core-state-standards-killing-our-children/

According to the Alliance for Childhood: “There is growing evidence that the pressure and anxiety associated with high-stakes testing is unhealthy for children–especially young children–and may undermine the development of positive social relationships and attitudes towards school and learning. … Parents, teachers, school nurses and psychologists, and child psychiatrists report that the stress of high-stakes testing is literally making children sick.”

Many folks learn better by watching videos than reading articles. Videos are also useful for showing at community educational meetings and presentations. We are therefore providing the links to a few important opt out videos. There are many videos on YouTube with parents, teachers and child development experts explaining the drawbacks of Common Core and high stakes high failure rate Common Core tests such as SBAC and PARCC. Below are a few of the best videos.

New York State Opt Out Videos
New York state students have been subjected to high failure rate Common Core tests for two years longer than other states. Parents in New York are therefore better organized than in any other state in the nation. Below are a couple of opt out videos produced by parents in New York.

REFUSE THE TEST is an excellent four minute video of parents in New York explaining how Common Core and the Common Core test has harmed their kids and why they finally decided to opt their kids out of the Common Core tests. Here is the link to share with your friends and neighbors. Below the link is the actual video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ayYajsQjg8


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TEST REFUSAL HITS MAIN STREET
This five minute video explains the process of refusing the test.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URkNzkADnIM


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Oregon State Opt Out Videos
A group of parents and teachers have started a website called Opt Out Oregon (dot) org. They have several videos on their SBAC website. Below are three of the best.


OPT OUT OF HIGH STAKES TESTS... TEACHERS AND PARENTS SPEAK OUT AGAINST SBAC
Parents in Portland Oregon speak out against the SBAC test. Posted on February 19 2015
11 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2VufHyZFmM

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OREGON LEGISLATOR LEW FREDERICK SPEAKS OUT AGAINST SBAC

Oregon legislator, Lew Frederick, give testimony in support of 3 House Bills on the drawbacks of High Stakes Testing in Oregon. Lew has submitted three bills to the Oregon state legislature in 2015:

House Bill 2713 asks what is the cost of high stakes testing
House Bill 2714 clarifies parents rights to opt their children out of the SBAC test
House Bill 2715 to protect students from public disclosure of their test scores.

This is the link to his Opt Out Parents Rights bill:
http://gov.oregonlive.com/bill/2015/HB2714/

Hopefully, similar bills will be introduced in the Washington state legislature.

This video was posted in February 2015 and is 10 minutes long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpnkiaTTAOs

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New Jersey Parents Speak Out Against the Harm of Crazy Common Core tests
https://vimeo.com/120619448

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If there are other videos on opting out that you would like us to post, contact us via the link in our main menu!

We all want to improve our public schools. But school improvement should not come at the expense of harming millions of children.


In this section, we will look at the severe harm inflicted on millions of children by high stakes tests. Below is just one of these millions of children. It is a five year old girl who was originally excited about attending Kindergarten. But after five hours of testing, she was reduced to tears because she did not know how to answer the questions on her high stakes test. Needless to say, her mother is now an opponent of high stakes tests.


How High Stakes Toxic Testing Harms Children
There are many ways this greedy plan by billionaires and corrupt politicians has severely harmed our kids. Below we will summarize just a few of the harms of toxic high stakes tests.

First, toxic tests force teachers to “teach to the test” rather than focusing on meeting the needs of each child.
Instead of helping children explore subjects with their natural curiosity, schools are turned into prisons that focus on “drill and kill” direct instruction and memorization of an endless series of facts that might appear on the next high stakes test.

 

Second toxic tests have forced teachers to change from child centered inquiry learning to corporate centered Drill and Kill Direct Instruction

You can either download the following PDF or copy and paste the following information into your own document. This form was adapted from the 2010 Washington State MSP Assessment Refusal form. Your school will likely ask you to fill out and sign a nearly identical form. But this form will provide you with the questions they will ask and the information you will need. Here is a link to the PDF Download Page:
http://optoutwashington.org/opt-out-washington-sbac-opt-out-form-and-flier

Here is the web version of this form which you can copy and paste into your own document:

Please print the following information:

Student’s Name _______________________________________________________

Parent/Guardian’s Name _________________________________________________

School Name ___________________________ School District ___________________

Grade Level ____ School Year _______ Month(s) or Date(s) of Assessment _________

As the parent, or legal guardian of the above named student, under U.S legislation and federal court decisions, I have the fundamental and legal right to direct the upbringing and education of my child which the school may not deny. I hereby choose for my child to not participate in the Washington State SBAC assessment.

My reasons for this decision include, but are not limited to:

I have concerns about the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessment, its purpose, its content, and potential data security breach of student test information. A copy of the actual test that would be given to my child is not available. Nor has the SBAC “adaptive” test been shown to be scientifically valid or reliable. In addition, I do not believe that giving students a high failure rate test in which the majority of students will fail the test is in the best interest of my child or any child.

I request that the school make accommodations for meaningful alternative learning activities on the day(s) of the SBAC test. I further request that NO personal data about my child provided at the time of enrollment or during the school year be sent to any State or Federal agency, contractor or vendor outside of this school district without my specific written consent. School district employees, contractors or vendors who violate this notice, by sharing my child’s personal data outside this school district, without my written consent, shall be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

Accommodations that will be made for my child on the day(s) of the SBAC assessments: _________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

I understand the benefits and consequences of this decision. In particular, I understand that if my child does not pass the High School state assessment, or an approved alternative program (such as completing normal high school course work), my child may not be able to obtain a high school diploma.