North+Carolina+Facebook

> ====== I honestly don't know the answer to this yet. But here's the link to the NC Department of Public Instruction Accountability Services. ====== > > ====== @http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/ ====== > > ====== There is a link to Request for Testing Exemptions Based on Significant Medical Emergencies and/or Conditions. ====== > > ====== @http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/accountability/memos/medexceptmemo1011.pdf ====== > > ====== I'm not seeing any other information about parental rights to opt out, but I will dig around some more. ====== about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== Still not seeing anything in the NC General Statutes about opting out. Here's the link to the NC General Statutes. ====== > > ====== @http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/Statutes/StatutesTOC.pl?Chapter=0115C ====== > > ====== Article 10A. Testing. ====== > ====== @http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByArticle/Chapter_115C/Article_10A.html ====== > about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== I just sent an e-mail to Gary Williams, who is the director of accountability operations at the Department of Public Instruction (NC). I told him that I objected to standardized testing and that I wanted information on how to opt out. IF I get a reply, I will post it here. ====== about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== Mr. Williams retired. This is a message from his replacement, Lou Fabrizio: ====== > > ====== Please know that we are aware of the limitations of standardized tests and that is why we report a student's score with an error band around the score. There also is a NC statute that states, "the principal shall not make the decision [about a student's grade placement or promotion] solely based on standardized test scores." (GS 115C-288(a)) ====== > ====== ====== > ====== We do allow certain medical exemptions (as you discovered on the DPI website). The federal law, No Child Left Behind, allows the medical exemptions but does not allow any other kind of exemptions from end-of-grade testing except from the reading test for certain limited English proficient (LEP) students in their first year in US schools. All other students are required to take the tests. ====== about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== I've heard the same thing about the student being held back if their scores are not 3's or 4's. I'm going to speak to my kids' principal about it. ====== about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== Anything on religious exemption?? There is a blogger at the Huffington Post that says you can opt out of these federal tests. They are all NCLB funded. Join the FB group "NCLB Testing 2011......" Also, I saw some sample opt-out letters at www.endtherace.org ====== > > ====== However, I'm with all of you, and have a child similar to yours, Rebecca. I also have another child who has severe test anxiety. I really want to know what NC says, so I can quote the statues to my uninformed principal. ====== about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== There is no religious exemption in NC that I can find. If there is one, I'll "convert" though. ====== about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== Here's an example of a Charlotte, NC school's testing schedule! ====== > > > ====== The following is the testing schedule for the rest of the year. Mark your calendars accordingly. ====== > ====== March: ====== > ====== • 28 th-Practice EOG Reading ====== > ====== • 29 th-Practice EOB-Math Active ====== > ====== • 30 th-Practice EOG- Math Inactive ====== > ====== • 31 st-Practice EOG-science-5th grade only ====== > ====== April: ====== > ====== • 4 th-writing test ====== > ====== • 5 th-writing test make up ====== > ====== • 6 th-CMS Pilot test Social Studies ====== > ====== • 7 th-CMS Pilot test Science ====== > ====== • 8 th-CMS Pilot test make ups ====== > ====== May: ====== > ====== • 9 th-summatives Social Studies Test ====== > ====== • 10 th-summatives Science Test ====== > ====== • 11 th-summatives make-ups ====== > ====== • 12 th-summatives make-ups ====== > ====== • 16 th-EOG ====== > ====== • 17 th-EOG ====== > ====== • 18 th-EOG ====== > ====== • 19 th-EOG ====== > ====== • 24 th-EOG make up ====== > ====== • 25 th-EOG make up ====== > ====== • 26 th-EOG make up ====== > ====== • 27 th-EOG make up ====== > ====== • 31 st-EOG retakes ====== > about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== What you can do.... ====== > > > ====== From the Charlotte Teacher's Association today: ====== > > ====== @http://ncleg.net/Sessions/2011/Bills/House/PDF/H546v0.pdf ====== > ====== ====== > ====== The link above is to the recently introduced bill by Rep. Ruth Samuelson that IF PASSED would allow CMS to remove teachers from the State Salary Schedule without allowing the teachers a voice in the matter. This is not a done deal. This bill just like any other requires a majority of support in the House AND Senate to become LAW. It is the right of every voter to voice their opinion and right to appeal to their elected representatives to represent them according to information they provide. Therefore, I encourage all teachers, parents, and community members to write to as many of the electorate as possible emphasizing that this bill is NOT in the best interest of students of CMS, teachers of CMS and therefore the economic stability of Mecklenburg County. ====== > > ====== The amount of instructional time in the critical lower grades, Kindergarten, First, Second, and Third grades alone should be a deterrent to passage. Teachers in these grade levels must administer the tests one on one (Teacher/student) requiring a minimum of 1.25 hours of instructional time per student. Multiply that by the number of students in the class(25 or More) and multiply that per quarter for formatives and then summative tests resulting in almost a month of instruction devoted to testing alone. Instruction becomes secondary to testing. ====== > ====== ====== > ====== These tests are not meant to help students learn nor are they an effective means to determine teacher effectiveness. A nationally normed test would do a better job as well as cost substantially less than the >44 administrators in Accountability (none of which are paid on a teacher salary not to mention the cost of all of the support necessary to create all of these inadequate testing measures). A nationally normed test would allow us to compare the performance of our students to students around the state and country. ====== > > ====== I encourage everyone to go to www.ncleg.net and go to view member info to get individual email addresses for legislators and write to as many as possible. Ask them to do the right thing for students, teachers and the community of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and stop the "Race to the Bottom". ====== > > ====== Be sure to email the following: ====== > ====== thom.tillis@ncleg.net ====== > ====== ruth.samuelson@ncleg.net ====== > ====== ric.killian@ncleg.net ====== > ====== martha.alexander@ncleg.net ====== > ====== tommy.tucker@ncleg.net ====== > ====== charlie.dannely@ncleg.net ====== > ====== becky.carney@ncleg.net ====== > ====== beverly.earle@ncleg.net ====== > ====== tricia.cotham@ncleg.net ====== > ====== jerry.tillman@ncleg.net ====== > ====== jean.preston@ncleg.net ====== > ====== bob.rucho@ncleg.net ====== > about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== Here are the testing administration rules. (not opting out) This will show you what your child could go through during the testing process. ====== > > ====== @http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/accountability/policyoperations/stchandbook.pdf ====== about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== I was a teacher (EC) for 11 years here in NC and am now in law school because of NCLB. I wish there was some exemption from testing... of course, the problem is, opting out of testing doesn't take away all of the time in class wasted teaching to a test. We need to find some way to do away with this testing altogether so teachers can actually teach again not spend the school year teaching children how to "beat" a multiple choice test. ====== about 5 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== As a parent of a 5th grader in the Charlotte -Mecklenburg school system, I am already sick and tired of the number of days WASTED on testing. And not only the test days, but the brainwashing on how to take a standardized test. Critical thinking skills are going out the window and I see my daughter's sense of creativity being smashed because it does not fit in a multiple choice question. My daughter is an excellent student and luckily tests well, but she HATES this time of year because she hates the EOG's, etc... She gets stressed out because of all of the stupid rules (take everything down in the walkways, even art work) during EOG's and she senses the stress the teachers are put under too. Every year during EOG's and the weeks leading up to it, my daughter's life is turned upside down. ====== about 4 months ago  · [|Report] > ====== Please join our FB group - OPT OUT OF THE STATE TEST: The National Movement. Anyone can opt out - you are protected by the 1st and 14th Amendment of the Federal Constitution. They just won't tell you that because the test is connected to funding. ====== > about a week ago  · [|Report] > ====== Have any NC bloggers or news outlets covered parent resistance and requests to opt out of standardized tests? ====== on Tuesday  · [|Report] > ====== I am in NC and I have never seen it. I would love to work on an "opt out" here but have no idea how to logically make it work. ====== on Tuesday  · [|Report] > ====== Caution: whatever rationale used to request opting out, including the U.S. Constitution, parents must become fully informed. I have found no example where a parent applied amendment 1or14 to opt out, nor found a court case refusing state mandated assessments using those amendments as support.........Yet. ====== on Tuesday  · [|Report] > ====== @Karen - I blogged about two S.C. Mothers who have filed with the Office of Civil Rights over their school refusing requests to opt out. Both have children with complicated medical conditions. I am aware of a N.C. (CMS) Mother trying to opt out her autistic son. Wondering if that has been in any news on that. Seems to me the first step is to inform like-minded parents. Personally I am trying to see parent resistance get more media coverage. Let's see if others join in here. I am in Florida..hoping Irene blows away from all of us! ====== on Tuesday <span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom"> · [|Report] > ====== @Sandra- I haven't seen anything about this in the news but frankly I don't watch the news very much because it never has anything good on it. I am ALL for educating people and getting as much information out there as I can. If we can get good, concrete information together, I am more than happy to pass it to as many people as I can (I am a former teacher, a parent of school aged kids, and a law student, interested in education law). ====== on Tuesday <span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom"> · [|Report] > ====== @Karen - we sure need some education lawyers with the kind of experience you have. You might want to follow the S.C. case, it has a link to the news article: ====== > ====== www.grumpythings.blogspot.com ====== > > ====== I'm still hunting for the N.C. story. ====== > ====== :-) ====== on Tuesday <span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom"> · [|Report] > ====== @ Sandra- thanks! I will start reading it as soon as I get done with my class reading (blech! I would definitely rather be reading the blog) I am MORE than ready though to take on whatever I can with this because it is 100% the reason I went to law school. I got sick of watching NCLB and standardized testing take my students down. :( ====== on Tuesday <span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom"> · [|Report] > ====== Good luck...I fear that we will be fighting this long enough for you to finish your law degree. Parents will need you! ====== on Tuesday <span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom"> · [|Report] > ====== Unfortunately, I 100% agree. I still have 3 semesters left (although I am already interning doing education law) but I am going to come out of the gate running! ====== on Tuesday <span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom"> · [|Report] > ====== @Karen - fyi right here in the Discussion Area, go to South Carolina to read the stories. I didn't realize both had made posts....when you come up for air, of course. ====== > on Tuesday <span class="UIActionLinks UIActionLinks_bottom"> · [|Report]
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