In 2010 there were 324 parental refusals, 519 tests that were not completed, 157 students withdrew before completion, 20 were listed as not completed due to extreme frustration, 254 were misadministered.
http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeassess/documents/csap/csap_summary.html
School academic performance ratings (SAR) will no longer be assigned for Colorado schools. The Education Accountability Act of 2009 (SB 09-163) repealed previous SAR law. Negative weights for Unsatisfactory and No Score percentages are not in effect anymore.
James McIntosh, Director of Student Assessment
http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdegen/downloads/SB163/UpdatedAccountabilityAlignmentBill2PageSummary.pdf
“Students who do not test, including those who ..[don't]..due to parental refusal, are counted as non-participants when determining participation rates for state and federal accountability purposes.
..non-participant data are not counted as zeroes – they are excluded from the calculation… So the calculations are performed on the basis solely of students that took the test and had valid scores on it.” –
Jo O'Brien - Assistant Commissioner of Standards, Colorado Department of Education.
Parental rights are broadly protected by Supreme Court decisions (Meyer and Pierce), especially in the area of education, so why not in our Colorado state statutes? The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that parents posses the “fundamental right” to “direct the upbringing and education of their children.” Furthermore, the Court declared that “the child is not the mere creature of the State: those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” (Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534-35) The Supreme Court criticized a state legislature for trying to interfere “with the power of parents to control the education of their own.” (Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 402.) In Meyer, the Supreme Court held that the right of parents to raise their children free from unreasonable state interferences is one of the unwritten "liberties" protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (262 U.S. 399).
In recognition of both the right and responsibility of parents to control their children’s education, the Court has stated,
“It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for the obligations the State can neither supply nor hinder.” (Prince V. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158)
Policing educators and standardization is not the purpose of public education. The original design of public education was to promote an intelligent and empowered citizenry capable of directing our own future. This requires critical thinkers and those capable of challenging the system not conforming to a national ideal of uniformity. High-stakes testing reinforces the lowest levels of thinking in our students. Now with the Race to the Top Initiative and Performance Pay, government policies are reinforcing the worst teaching practices. Our government needs to provide the resources, the structure and the policies that support children intellectually and emotionally, democratic citizenship, and economic progress.
You as a parent, have the right to make educational decisions regarding your child. On the day that this is no longer a reality, then we're in real trouble.
(The only exception is when a parent signs away this right. Charter schools often have a clause in their parent contract committing their child to take the test. Although as one student pointed out, "Students didn't sign a contract, and even if they did, they can't make us pass the test.")
