Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

CT Superintendent to go with unethical “sit and stare” policy for students opted out of Common Core Test - Wait What?

CT Superintendent to go with unethical “sit and stare” policy for students opted out of Common Core Test - Wait What?:



CT Superintendent to go with unethical “sit and stare” policy for students opted out of Common Core Test








 Since unethical government policies lead to unethical actions, it was only a matter of time before some education official turned the whole Common Core SBAC testing farce into something even more reprehensible.

Enter West Haven Connecticut School Superintendent Neil Cavallero who earns an “F” for his proposed policy on handling children whose parents have opted them out of the Common Core SBAC testing.
As the saying goes, the story pretty much says it all when it comes to the state of public education in Connecticut.
As readers of this blog know, Connecticut Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy and his State Department of Education continue to claim that federal and state laws prohibit parents from opting their children out of the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) testing scheme.
Just last week, Malloy’s Interim Commissioner of Education, Dianna R. Wentzell, issued a directive to all local school superintendents informing them that the Common Core SBAC testing program was mandatory and that, “These laws do not provide a provision for parent’s to ‘opt-out’  their children from the taking these tests.”
However, with more and more serious questions being raised about the validity and appropriateness of the Common Core SBAC tests, record numbers of Connecticut parents and guardians are informing their local school districts that their children WILL NOT be participating in the destructive Common Core SBAC tests.
Some towns are reporting that the number of parents opting their students out of the Common Core testing is three times higher than last year when students were told they were taking the SBAC test of a test.
Connecticut parents know, or are coming to realize, that no edict from a government official can take away their inalienable and constitutionally guaranteed right to protect their children  when it comes to deciding whether their public school student will or will not be taking the Common Core SBAC tests.
In addition, there is absolutely no federal or state law, regulation or policy that allows the government or school district to punish the child (or the parent) should the parent decide to refuse to allow their child to participate in the SBAC testing.
Unlike the state’s truancy laws that do hold children and parents liable for failing to go to school, there is simply no mechanism for the state or school district to require students to take the Common Core SBAC test.
That said the Malloy administration’s untenable position that opting out is “against” the law has put local school superintendents into an extremely difficult position.
Do school superintendents follow orders from above and turn their backs on the parents CT Superintendent to go with unethical “sit and stare” policy for students opted out of Common Core Test - Wait What?: