As the testing season nears, the debate over the value of those exams is heating up, locally and across the country.
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| Bryan |
Grundy's group is taking part in the national "Testing Resistance and Reform Spring" movement, which encourages parents to opt their students out of exams. You may have seen the recent opinion piece by Grundy and her husband, Peter Wong, about why their seventh-grade son won't take state exams.
"During nearly a decade of experience with high-stakes testing, we have become increasingly appalled at the damage we have seen it do to schools and children," they wrote. "... Elected officials from both parties have failed us. It is time for parents – who have the biggest stake in high-quality public education – to just say no."
Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of Washington, D.C, schools, recently weighed in on the opposite side in the Washington Post.
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| Rhee |
"Opt out of measuring how well our schools are serving students?" Rhee writes. "What’s next: Shut down the county health department because we don’t care whether restaurants are clean? Defund the water-quality office because we don’t want to know if what’s streaming out of our kitchen faucets is safe to drink?"
N.C. Deputy Superintendent Rebecca Garland recently sent a memo to superintendents reminding them that the state does not allow opt-outs. Students who refuse to take state exams will receive failing grades, the memo says, and those who stay home on testing day will be given a makeup exam when they return.
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