Opt+Out+Letter+-+Edy+Chamness

To: Commissioner Robert Scott, SBOE Members, Austin ISD Superintendent and Administration, Austin Schoolboard Trustees, Principal and Teachers,  I hereby state that my son (4th grade) and daughter, (2nd grade) will not be attending school next week; they will be opting out of standardized testing.

Through our actions of civil disobedience, we hope to draw more attention to this hideous and pervasive problem that is destroying our Texas Public Schools. District-mandated "benchmark" testing (November) and "middle-of-the-year" testing (February) has already robbed fourth grade students in Austin ISD of 40 hours of instructional time. On March 27th & 28th, 4th grade students took the new STAAR writing test that featured not one, but now two writing prompts; twice as much money for taxpayers to dole out to some assessment company to pay for the temporary, contract labor who will spend less than 1 minute reading and evaluating a student's essay. Wouldn't it be so much less expensive if we could just have student writing portfolios? Why can't we have a meaningful system whereby parents, teachers and students review, discuss and evaluate a student's writing? Does that need to be mandated by the legislature in order for it to happen?

On Tuesday, April 24th, the million dollar shiny new STAAR Mathematics test will be administered to grades 3, 4, 6, & 7. We can expect to see virtually every public elementary and middle school across Texas in full, lock-down mode. Many districts, such as ours, will take this opportunity to administer "benchmark" tests to 2nd grade students. These tests are created by central office personnel by recycling previously released TAKS tests. These test scores will be converted into data driven instruction to be implemented by next years' 3rd grade teachers whereby they will be forced to teach more test-related skills and strategies.

The cycle of testing never ends, and my children are suffering for the sake of legislative mandates and corporate profits. I am a mother and I feel it is my duty and obligation to protect them from this stressful, oppressive and degraded environment where test scores have become the exclusive indicator of student achievement and teacher effectiveness. Why in the world would I permit my son to sit in a broken down, 20 year-old portable building to slave over a 4 hour mathematics test that made politicians and the Pearson Testing Corporation rich while my son was simultaneously robbed of an enriching education?

I refuse to allow my children to participate in this wasteful system of standardized testing. Throughout the upcoming week, we plan to learn some very important lessons in our home; lessons about civil disobedience, democracy, and the Constitution of the United States of America.

Sincerely,

Texas Parents Opt Out of State Tests