As state adds new testing, some parents urge opt-out protest

Like never before, South Carolina public school students are being asked to perform on a battery of new high-stakes standardized tests.

Many students will spend more than a month this spring either taking tests or preparing to take tests, say educators.

Teachers and principals are evaluated on how well their students perform and, eventually, schools will be assessed on their effectiveness based on student performance on standardized tests.

Some parents now say they’ve had enough.

One group, led by Sheri Few, who ran unsuccessfully for superintendent of education, said it will ask parents to defy the new state law requiring students to take the tests.

The bold move comes as South Carolina, for the first time, rolls out the ACT Aspire test for students in grades three through eight and makes all 11th graders take the ACT and a new ACT Workkeys test to evaluate job readiness.

“We are going to encourage parents to refuse the tests,” said Few, president of South Carolina Parents Involved in Education. “Students are being tested far too much. It’s gotten absurd.”

After seeing opt-out forms circulating among parents in the state, South Carolina’s Department of Education released a memo to school district superintendents in September that said state and federal law requires all students take part in testing.

There is no opt-out provision, the memo said.

It refers to two state laws: the 1998 Education Accountability Act and 2014’s Act 200, both of which say tests will be given to “all” public school students.

Many parents have protested Common Core and new state English and math standards. Now Few said her group has reached a breaking point with a state system that’s not listening to parents.

“We believe that parents have been driven to civil disobedience because we no longer have any say in our children’s education,” Few said.

One family in a Lexington County district is prepared to go to court if needed, Few said.

Gateway grades

The opt-out movement comes as Congress debates whether to roll back required testing in its review of No Child Left Behind. Some states already have rolled back the number of state tests. In some cases, school districts abandoned their own tests to cut down on the number students had to take.

Four states, including South Carolina, stopped giving high school exit exams last year.

But in 2014, lawmakers in South Carolina, through Act 200, required a state assessment for English/language arts and math be given to all students in grades three through eight beginning this year. If funds are available, the test also will be given to grades nine and 10 in coming years.

It also required state-developed tests in science and social studies for all students in grades four through eight, as well as a college-and career-readiness test and a Workkeys test for all students in 11th grade to measure job skills.

Burke Royster, Greenville County Schools superintendent, said there is some movement within the state to re-examine the amount of testing.

“I think the climate appears now to be ripe for discussion about reducing the amount of testing, and also to be able to view that a quality graduate and a quality school is more than a snapshot of one test on one day for those students, though that is also still important,” Royster said.

A model where students are tested during “gateway” courses or grades is possible, he said.

South Carolina’s vision for accountability has been clear for many years and the state is viewed as one of a few to “pave the way” for accountability, he said.

Rolling back the number of tests would require a change of perspective for lawmakers, he said.

Shifting assessments

The seemingly constant changing of assessments has an impact on students as well, said Lisa Wells, Greenville County’s school board chairwoman.

“If we’re re-evaluating what we’re changing or doing every two or three years to accommodate a report card, that’s to the detriment of the student,” Wells said.

The state didn’t select the tests it will use this spring until mid-December when it awarded a five-year, $58 million contract to ACT Inc. Last week, the state’s Procurement Review Panel ruled the contract invalid beyond this year. Testing companies will have to bid again for the contract for next school year.

The timeline-crunch to inform principals and teachers of the new tests is making it difficult on students and teachers, in terms of trying to prepare students for what to expect.

For instance, teachers instruct third graders on the complete writing process: brainstorm, outline, write a draft, edit and rewrite, said Jason McCreary, the director of accountability and quality assurance for Greenville County schools.

But the ACT Aspire test is timed, which requires third graders to write a reflective narrative in 30 minutes.

“That requires a completely different type of mindset,” he said. “It’s called attack writing and if a student comes in there unprepared, then they’re not going to do as well.”

It’s not just third graders. This is the first time every grade level is being timed for all test sections, not just writing. Non-answers count against the student’s score, McCreary said.

Effect on students

Depending on a student’s grade level, he or she could be in test mode from the second week of April all the way through May, McCreary said.

Beyond the state tests, students have end-of-course exams in key subjects that count 20 percent of their grade. Some have Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests. Then there are final exams.

In 2011, Sharon Johnson opted her third-out of testing in Charleston County Schools for the first time for medical reasons.

“I had a doctor’s note and everything,” she said.

She received such pushback from the principal and teachers that she filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights and the school backed down.

“Ever since then I’ve refused testing for both of my children,” she said.

Johnson formed South Carolina’s first Parents Across America chapter and has led a charge for parental rights to opt out of testing in South Carolina.

Johnson opposes that test scores are used to rate schools and teachers.

Before this year, only 10 to 15 students each year have opted out, Johnson estimated.

But the national opt-out movement and blowback in South Carolina to Common Core has drawn more interest this year than ever before, she said.

“Common Core, whether you like it or not, just got so much attention that it’s gotten parents to say ‘wait a minute, there’s just way too much testing going on in our schools.’”

Some school districts are preparing for a bumpy year of test scores.

For the first time, all 11th-graders will take the ACT. In the past, it was given on a few spring Saturdays to students who were preparing for college.

As of today, the state’s Education Oversight Committee won’t use the results for accountability, but that’s likely to change in future years, McCreary said.

At a recent Greenville County School Board meeting, longtime trustee Pat Sudduth asked McCreary the motivations behind the new tests.

“So the reason we are doing this is because of politicians?” Sudduth asked.

“We are following the law,” McCreary said.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 12:05 AM with the headline "As state adds new testing, some parents urge opt-out protest."