More opt out of standardized tests
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| Renee Heller poses with daughters Reece, 8, left, and Campbell, 10. The Hellers are skipping the PSSA exams this year through a provision that allows parents to opt their children out for religious reasons. |
Instead of tackling the first of eight days of Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams in math and reading, they served as classroom helpers for younger students at their school and completed independent academic work.
The Hellers are skipping the exams this year through a little-known provision of the state education law that allows parents to opt their children out of PSSAs and Keystone Exams for religious reasons.
Their mother, Renee Heller, is part of a small but growing group of parents fed up with the emphasis at their schools on state-mandated high-stakes, high-stress tests.
"I don't have a problem with the tests themselves as much as what it's doing to our public school system," Heller said. "It's making teachers teach to the test instead of leading our children to love learning."
Until this year, opting out was almost unheard of. In 2012, only seven students were excused from testing at all Lancaster County public schools. Statewide, only about 260 students — out of 500 school districts — opted out.
But this year, the opt-out movement is gaining momentum here and across the country.
A protest last week by United Opt Out National in Washington, D.C., reportedly drew 500 parents and children, five times as many as last year.
Opt-out parent and student groups have formed in Colorado, Oregon, Ohio, New York, Florida and Texas, where the state House last week passed a bill that would cut required graduation exams from 15 to five.
In Seattle, teachers refused to administer the state's standardized tests this winter in a boycott that prompted changes in the testing law.
And last month, Arizona scrapped the battery of tests students must pass to graduate from high school.
How strong the movement is here is hard to quantify, but it clearly is growing.
"I realize that a handful of us opting out is not going to change the Legislature, but it sends a loud and clear message that we won't stand by as our teachers and children are used as pawns in this governmental game," said Heller, who opted her children out of the testing last week.
To do so, she had to review the test materials, sign a nondisclosure form and submit a letter to the superintendent explaining her objections.
According to state regulations, parents need to indicate only that the tests "are in conflict with their religious beliefs" for a student to be excused from taking the tests.
Heller said the exams put too much pressure on students and teachers and have forced schools to devote too much time to core subjects at the expense of music, art and other classes.
She also objects to a new regulation that will tie teacher evaluations to students' standardized test results beginning next year.
No Child Left Behind, the federal law that created the tests, is unrealistic, Heller said, requiring that all students score "proficient" or "advanced" on PSSAs in 2014.
"In the next year, we're being set up to fail, no matter what," she said.
Another Manheim Township parent, Betsy Robinson Jayquith, opted her fourth-grader, Drew, out of taking the tests this year for the first time.
Jayquith said she acted, in part, to spare her son, who has attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, the stress that comes with taking the tests.
"He asked me, 'If I don't do well on these tests, is my teacher going to get in trouble? Because, Mom, I don't test well,' " she said. "The PSSAs are nerve-wracking for him."
Like Heller, she also is opting out to protest changes in the elementary school schedule that severely cut music and art class time this year so students could spend more time on math and language arts — the subjects that help determine whether schools make "adequate yearly progress" based on PSSA scores.
All students in grades three through eight take the tests.
Neither parent blames her child's teachers or the local school board for the increased emphasis on testing. They fault state and federal lawmakers who created the testing system.
"I think our teachers' hands are completely tied," Heller said. "I don't think they have any choice in the matter but to just go with the flow."
Both parents said they were inspired to opt out after reading a newspaper column by a Carnegie-Mellon University professor on why she opted her son out of the tests.
Published in the March 31 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the column has been widely circulated among parents and education advocates, garnering 42,000 "likes" on Facebook and more than 500 online comments.
Not everyone supports what Heller and Jayquith are doing.
On a Facebook site for parents of Manheim Township School District students, some people have criticized them for hurting their children's schools and teachers. Others have questioned whether they're setting a poor example for their children.
Students who are exempted from the testing are counted against a school, which must have 95 percent of its students take PSSAs and Keystone Exams — given to secondary students — to make adequate yearly progress.
If more than 5 percent of a school's students were to opt out, the school would automatically fail.
But Heller points out the rising standards will mean that all schools will be earning failing grades by next year, regardless of how many kids are tested.
And she said her decision to opt out was not made lightly.
"There were a lot of long discussions, a lot of prayer," said Heller, who did as much research as she could on standardized testing before deciding to opt out.
She also had frank discussions with her children, who wondered: What do I say if my friends ask me? What will they think? Will I be able to graduate if I don't take the tests?
"I didn't want them to feel that their friends are not making the right decision" by taking the PSSAs, Heller said. "I also made it clear to them that we're not opposed to them taking tests, and we're not going to opt them out of (just) any test.
"It's just a situation where Mom and Dad don't agree with what's going on," she said. "It stems from the No Child Left Behind policy and the unrealistic goals that we're never going to attain."
Jayquith said she's hoping lawmakers take note of the growing number of parents opting their children out of the tests. The reaction from her son confirmed she made the right decision, she said.
"It's been a peaceful and relaxed week for us, which is great. Every day I've heard from (Drew), 'Thank you for not making me do this.' "
She recommends other parents consider opting their children out of the testing.
"Absolutely, if that's what's in their heart. If it's something they feel is against their moral or religious fortitude and are looking out for the health of their children, why not?" Jayquith said.
"Why put them through this? This is ridiculous, and for what?"
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