Recently a friend of mine has been sharing information from the federal government's  Common Education Data Standards website on her Facebook page, and it's kind of scary stuff. To begin with, the federal government has a poor record around abusing information gathering in the past (think former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover or the NSA)  and secondly, not even the government is able to keep our data completely safe. Thus, I think most people agree we don't like having the government collecting massive amounts of data on us.  And while having companies collect our shopping data is definitely annoying and intrusive, having the government collecting personal data is a whole different thing. Especially when they may be sharing that data with private companies as well. 

FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) was amended in 2008 and again in 2011 in order to allow data sharing between not only state and educational agencies but also amongst private entities who were included in the new definition of "school officials". This carries huge implications as to who now has access to our children's data and for what purpose it may someday be used.  And the amount of data that is being collected is massive. Check out a little of the database here. 

Here's a screenshot from a page my friend  managed to dig up on this database.

My friend's comment with this post: "So if a students swears, of course it should be noted, recorded, processed and then studied to see of there is a significant correlation between swearing and later ending up in prison, or has positive or negative correlation w/ future earnings of the individual. WE NEED THIS DATA!!!!"

Having been both a middle school and high school student and having worked in a middle school for a number of years, I can safely say that if things continue as they've been going, there will no doubt be a very large number of people with things like this on their permanent FEDERAL record in the future. 

And remember, this is the "P-20W(early learning postsecondary and workforce)" database. How much of this kind of stuff are they planning to include? 

How long will this data follow our kids around? And who are the ultimate end users of it all? 

Do we have the right to expose our children's personal data like this? 

Admittedly, I am not the best blogger. I'm really busy and don't write as much as I should. Thank goodness for friends like Elizabeth Thiel, Portland parent and Vice President Elect of the Portland Association of Teachers! This week she published her opt out letter to her children's school on Facebook and agreed to let me repost it here on my blog. Many thanks, Elizabeth! 


We are writing to inform you that our child, ____________, will not be participating in the Smarter Balanced Assessment to be administered this spring.  

We have made this decision for the following reasons:

• The SBAC does not provide useful information to teachers, students, or parents. Receiving a single score of 1, 2, 3, or 4 tells us nothing of our child’s strengths, challenges, or misunderstandings in Language Arts or Math. Rather, we get ample information about our child’s progress from her teacher. 
• The SBAC is a misuse of instructional time. The test is inappropriately long. It takes at least 8 hours, even for 3rd graders. This is longer than the SAT and ACT combined, and does not even include the hours needed for practice tests and test-prep activities. This time comes at the cost of meaningful learning experiences that teachers have had to cut out to accommodate testing.
• High Stakes tests are an inappropriate way to rate teachers and schools. Test results consistently reinforce the misguided notion that schools that serve a large number of students living in poverty are “bad” schools, while schools that serve mostly upper-income students are “good” schools. We have seen many schools in our community lose support, and then suffer through prescriptive, top-down “interventions” in a myopic effort to raise test scores. Furthermore, evaluating teachers based on test scores, as is currently required by Oregon law, penalizes those who work with the populations that most need a stable and experienced teaching staff. We conscientiously object to this system, and do not give consent for our child’s test scores to be used to evaluate her teacher or rate her school.
• High Stakes testing is a tool being used to privatize schools and diminish public education. Standardized test scores have been widely used to justify the closure and privatization of public schools, especially in low-income communities. At the same time, corporations profit from selling increasingly expensive tests and education products touted to raise scores. We can not in good conscience participate in a system that is being used as leverage to dismantle public education.​

We have included the ODE opt-out form, but please note that we do NOT agree with the statement that appears above the signature line. It reads,  “I understand that by signing this form I may lose valuable information about how well my child is progressing in English Language Arts and Math. In addition, opting out may impact my school and district’s efforts to equitably distribute resources and support student learning.” We have complete faith in our child’s teacher to provide us with ample information about her progress, which is far more valuable than the single number we may receive months after the SBAC is administered. We are disturbed that the district would threaten to renege on its obligation to “equitably distribute resources and support student learning” if parents chose not to participate in a flawed testing system left over from the disastrous policies of NCLB. HB 2655, the Student Assessment Bill or Rights, clarifies that parents have the right to chose not to participate in standardized tests, and the state, district, and school have the obligation to honor this decision, without threat to a family or a school.

With the end of NCLB, our state has the opportunity to create a new vision for accountability in our schools. We hope to see a system that holds government accountable for fully funding schools, that commits to ending child poverty so that students can focus on learning, and that prioritizes relevant learning experiences before standardized testing.
We realize that opting out of this test is not itself the solution, and that we are already making progress away from the misguided testing system which has done much harm to our nation’s public schools. By opting our child out of the SBAC, we intend to be part of the continuing momentum to create a system based on supporting students, teachers, and public schools, not ranking and sanctioning them.

​Sincerely,

​Elizabeth Thiel

The following letter was posted on Oregon Save Our Schools website this morning. I am reposting here with permission. I sincerely hope that this, in conjunction with the recent promises touted by ESSA proponents of more local state control over our schools, will encourage those district leaders who have been silent to speak up for what they know is right. 

Thanks to Oregon Save Our Schools for referencing my blog in the letter! 

Dear Superintendents and School Board Chairs of Oregon school districts,

As testing season approaches, Oregon Save Our Schools would like to address you on behalf of the many parents in Oregon who will be choosing to opt out their children out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment this year. 

As you know, HB 2655 was passed last legislative session. Undoubtably you have received instruction from the Oregon Department of Education regarding participation and informing parents of their right to opt their children out of the assessment. While we understand the need for you to attempt to comply with ODE directives, we write to urge you to respect parental rights as outlined in this bill which was a hard won battle led by parents who did not wish to have their religious beliefs nor their right to direct their children’s education questioned by local school districts. 

With that in mind, we ask that you not put up roadblocks that are not required by the law. Parents are not required by law to meet with anyone in the school district to obtain approval to opt their children out of testing. Further, asking principals to do anything other than accept forms handed in places a problematic burden on them which can result in a mistrust of the principal by parents. That could also be a recipe for division among parents at a school site. This was happening prior to the HB 2655 and the hope was that it would end with its passage.

While the Department of Education encourages parents to submit the form no later than February 1 in order to help districts plan, there is nothing in the law that requires parents to do so. ODE representatives, when questioned, have confirmed for  OSOS members on more than one occasion that it is a parent’s right to opt their child out of testing at any time, even if the child has already begun testing and the parent does not wish their child to continue. We have also been forwarded an email by a founder of Eugene Parents Concerned About High Stakes testing in which Holly Carter, ODE’s Interim Director of Assessment states that crossing out any statements on ODEs form about the value of testing which parents do not agree with should not prohibit parents from exercising their rights.

Additionally, opt out forms should be easily obtainable in school offices, not just available to download, and in parents’ native languages to assure equal access for all parents.

The intent of the law was to stop making it difficult and onerous for parents to exercise those parental rights. If that is at all in doubt,  you can read letters from HB 2655 co-sponsor Representative Lew Fredrick to Dr. Noor here and from co-sponsor Representative Chris Gorsek here.  We urge you to follow the spirit of the law and allow parents who wish to opt their children out to do so without interference. 

We would also like to call on any of you who feel so moved to speak out publicly against the Smarter Balanced Assessment and high stakes standardized testing in general. Note that you would not be alone. In Vermont, the State Board of Education sent this letter to parents in November of last year.  Back in 2011, a Florida school board member took their state assessment and, after seeing his results, felt it was imperative that he speak out.  And more recently, Idaho’s Superintendent of the Year gave a TEDX talk about his concerns regarding high stakes standardized testing. The full talk can be seen here.

We share the concerns of Oregon teachers regarding SBAC and look forward to all of us working together to finish the work begun by OEA and ODE towards a better assessment system.  We hope you will question assessments that do not follow the guiding principles found in the linked "New Path for Oregon" document nor "Student Assessment Bill of Rights" found on page 18 of the document. Our students deserve quality assessments that their teachers can use to inform instruction. We hope you will join us in advocating for that.

In the meantime, we hope you will heed our recommendations, made in the interest of respecting parent and student rights and minimizing divisiveness in local school communities. The new ESSA gives us great opportunity to make local decisions and while it continues to require a 95% participation rate, we believe there is no legal basis for either the federal or state government to withhold funds from a district or school based on parental decisions.

We ask you to join us in advocating for creating an assessment system that works for teachers and students and respects and restores the power of local school communities. 

Thank you for all you do for your students and families.

Respectfully yours,

Oregon Save Our Schools

http://oregonsaveourschools.blogspot.com

Back in November, I published this letter from Oregon Representative Lew Frederick to Oregon's Deputy State Superintendent Salam Noor regarding the intent of HB 2655, a bill he co-sponsored with, among others, Representative Chris Gorsek.  As opt out season is upon us, I was made aware that Representative Gorsek had also written a letter to Dr. Noor at the time. I regret not knowing this at the time that I published Rep. Frederick's letter and so I am publishing it here today. 

Thankfully, parents can cross out the offending language in ODE's opt out form which our two representatives addressed in their letters. 

Here is Representative Gorsek's letter.