'Opting Out' Into School Choice
The logical next step for the
anti-Common Core 'opt-out' movement is opting out of entire schools.
What’s in this spring in
public education? Apparently it’s students opting out of state
standardized tests.
If you just read hysterical press accounts you might think parents are refusing state standardized
tests at a fantastic clip. In fact, for the overwhelming majority of schools
and students it’s business as usual. In a few affluent communities opting out
of the new Common Core tests is a thing. “Everyone is talking about it at Whole
Foods” says one disgusted New York education figure. But so far the opt out
craze is more noise than signal.
Still, faced with even the
possibility of an “opt-out” movement education officials are responding with
force. This week Kentucky’s education commissioner said school districts cannot honor opt-out requests and student refusals would be counted as zeroes for school
accountability purposes. That strategy seems more likely to fan flames than
change minds.
When I asked my nine-year-old
daughter about whether parents should opt kids out of tests, she responded, “Well,
then how will they know how they’re really doing?” Fair enough, but the debate
about testing is long past that sort of reasonableness. So if parents want to
opt-out of tests and all this craziness, why not just let them?
Let’s back up for a minute. To be
clear, the opt-out movement is not some organic happening. National Education
Association President Lily Eskelsen García tried to claim it was during a
discussion I moderated a few weeks ago at the Council of Chief State School
Officers legislative conference. When I asked her about the millions of dollars
some of her state affiliates are spending to encourage test boycotts she didn’t
have a response. That’s not very grassroots. In New York the state teachers
union is openly encouraging opt-outs and some PTAs are circulating warmed-over versions of union
talking points. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten
straddles the issue by saying she vigorously supports the right of parents to
opt-out but isn’t urging it.
Meanwhile, parents are not
boycotting all standardized tests. Parents in Brooklyn,
New York, Montclair, New Jersey and other affluent opt-out hot spots are more than happy to
opt their children in to the college gateway tests perpetuating
privilege and status in this country. Boycotting the new Common Core tests is
chic but at the same time millions of students are opting into the SAT and ACT
tests while their affluent parents pony up big bucks for tutoring on these and
other college gateway achievement tests like Advanced Placement. Education
writer Chris Stewart has pointedly noted the cringe-worthy irony of a mostly white led effort to boycott state standardized
tests that are arguably most important for low-income and minority students who
are frequently denied a quality education in our nation’s public schools.
Unlike the SAT and other college
tests the Common Core tests are linked to school accountability and teacher
evaluations. The data are disaggregated to make sure some students, especially
low-income and minority students, are not shortchanged. It’s probably just
coincidental that these tests, which shine a harsh light on how well schools
and school districts are doing, are the ones everyone is worked up about?
Of course it's not, which explains
why after hundreds of millions of public dollars have finally been invested in
a new generation of better
tests – assessments that educators, the
teachers unions and basically the entire education community said it wanted –
these tests suddenly aren’t good enough either.
So why not just allow parents to
opt-out? Think about it for a moment. If it were your child being asked to do
something you objected to, for several hours, under the supervision of adults
who in some cases you don’t even know, wouldn’t you want some freedom? Of
course you would. I would, too. That’s why I don’t object to opt-outs even if I
find today’s opt-out “movement” ridiculous, selfish and more than a little
hypocritical.
Instead of escalating the opt-out
fight, education leaders should channel this sudden enthusiasm for parental
rights, parental choice and self-determination to address a broader basket of
education issues. If parents are able to opt out of a test they ought to also
be able to opt out of a specific teacher’s class or a school as well. The
teachers unions could show some consistency by supporting the rights of parents
to transfer to better public schools that don’t turn student tests into an
unprofessional three-ring circus needlessly stressing out kids.
Fundamentally, the call for opt-outs
is a call for more parental freedom. In contemporary America, accountability is
usually regulatory-based (think financial markets), choice and market-based
(for instance clothes) or some combination of the two (like restaurants). It may
well be that test-based accountability has run its course in public education.
If so, the opt-out movement – ironically fueled by self-interested teachers
unions – may be pointing us to what’s next: a lot more choice and unbundling of
services in public education.
That might not be so bad. If it
turns out we can’t come together around school accountability schemes that look
after the poor – especially while the same elite progressives boycotting tests
can’t stop talking about inequality – then we at least ought to give the poor
real choice about the schooling of their children given how crucial education
is to social mobility.
Where can I opt into that movement?
It sounds less trendy but perhaps more impactful than just opting out of tests.
Andrew Rotherham is a cofounder and partner at Bellwether
Education Partners, a national nonprofit organization working to support
educational innovation and improve educational outcomes for high-need students.
Poster’s comments:
1)
Educating our children is a sacred
responsibility of all parents.
2)
Educate, don’t indoctrinate as an
obvious priority.
3)
Our children are not born knowing
many things that an education can provide for later success in their lives.
4)
If our present schools can’t or
won’t educate, then the parents still have an extra burden on themselves to
“get the job done”.
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