Portraits of Protest in Florida: How Opt-Out Makes the Personal Political

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Currin ◽  
Stephanie Schroeder ◽  
Todd Mccardle
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Background Context

Background/Context Opting out of high-stakes standardized tests, a phenomenon so widespread in the United States as to be regarded as a movement, is nevertheless a misunderstood and often maligned force in educational politics. Purpose This article offers a counternarrative of opt-out activism—a more thorough and vivid account of what we view as an unfairly maligned movement with tremendous potential for improving and preserving our nation's schools. Participants In-depth portraits introduce three members of the Opt Out Florida Network: Cindy Hamilton, an unabashed leader whose children have graduated; Sandy Stenoff, her partner in protest whose children remain in the system; and Susan Bowles, who grapples with conflicting roles of pedagogue and protester. Research Design As a critical ethnography, this study uses a qualitative approach to expose and challenge the unjust treatment of the opt-out movement, guided by the following research questions: 1) How do opt-out activists understand and explain their journeys to activism? 2) What experiences, concerns, and commitments guide them in their daily fight against high-stakes standardized testing? Data Collection and Analysis Using transcript data from focus group and 1-on-1 follow-up phone interviews, the research team composed and analyzed narrative portraits, which offer models of resistance to neoliberal education reform. Conclusions Contrary to their portrayal as passive, anti-test, anti-accountability parents solely focused on their own children, the opt-out movement is an active community of highly informed individuals dedicated to effecting positive change in education. The nuance of narrative captures the messy realities of activism, illustrating how parents and teachers must work together, guided by a view of citizenship as shared fate, to fight for more equitable and educative schools.

Should New York City Teachers Support Opt Out?: Two Views in the UFT

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (10) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
John C. Antush
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Teacher Evaluations ◽  
Common Core State Standard ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Union Local

New York State's Opt Out movement was described by the <em>New York Times</em> as "the vanguard of an anti-testing fervor that has spread across the country." The movement consists primarily of parents and students who fought against high-stakes Common Core State Standard (CCSS) tests by "opting out" of taking the exams.&hellip; [However,] this article is not about the massive parent and student-led "Opt Out Spring" of 2015. It is about how Opt Out threw into relief two different ways of thinking about unionism within New York City's UFT [United Federation of Teachers].&hellip; The leadership of&hellip;[the UFT,] the largest union local of any kind in the United States&hellip;. supported the CCSS and standardized testing, including the use of student test scores as part of teacher evaluations, and refused to support Opt Out.&hellip; Meanwhile, rank-and-file UFTers in the MORE-UFT (Movement of Rank and File Educators) caucus and other groups joined the city's Opt Out movement as part of the struggle against "ed deform."<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-10" title="Vol. 67, No. 10: March 2016" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>

Beyond Opt Out: A Broader Challenge to Corporate School Reform

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Howard Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Monthly Review ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
The Subject

As the corporate takeover of public schools proceeds apace on a global scale, so too does the grassroots resistance. In the United States…. [o]ver 600,000 parents opted their children out of the tests in spring 2015; students have launched walkouts and boycotts; school boards are passing resolutions against overtesting; and teachers at a Seattle high school collectively refused to administer a test they deemed harmful to instruction. These actions and more demonstrate the hope and promise of public schools as sites for resilience and democratic resistance, even as corporate interests tighten their grip on schools under cover of "education reform." This article reflects strategically on the fight for public education, with a special focus on the Opt Out movement, which was recently the subject of a special issue of Monthly Review. My treatment applauds opting out as a tactic in an organizing toolkit, but rejects it as a strategy, and takes issue with the analysis of corporate school reform proffered by the leading advocates of Opt Out.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

scholarly journals Opting out: Parents creating contested spaces to challenge standardized tests

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Mitra ◽  
Bryan Mann ◽  
Mark Hlavacik
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Federal Policy ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Contested Spaces ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Policy Environments ◽  
State Education ◽  
Opt Out

We explore how the opt-out movement has responded to the combination of a stringent federal policy with weak and often variable implementation among the states. Gaps between federal expectations and states’ understandings of just how to make NCLB’s demands a reality have created policy ambiguity. Parents who oppose standardized testing have recognized the resulting tensions and oversights in state education systems as a policy vacuum rife with opportunities for resistance. We examine how parents have exploited policy ambiguity through creating contested spaces—places of agency in stringent policy environments in which grassroots can question policy authority and take action. We conclude by considering whether these contested spaces are sustainable and whether the policy outcomes generated in contested spaces are reasonably equitable. 

scholarly journals The social networks and paradoxes of the opt-out movement amid the Common Core State Standards implementation: The case of New York

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinying Wang
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Solutions

Opting out of state standardized tests has recently become a movement—a series of grassroots, organized efforts to refuse to take high-stakes state standardized tests. In particular, the opt-out rates in the state of New York reached 20% in 2015 and 21% in 2016. This study aims to illustrate the social networks and examine the paradoxes that have propelled the opt-out movement in New York—the movement’s epicenter with the highest opt-out rate in the United States. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of social movement theory, social network theory, and policy paradox, this study compiled the opt-out corpus by using the data from 221 press-coverage and 30 archival documents. Social network analysis was performed by examining the relational data that suggest coalition ties between movement actors. Further, to explicate how the movement actors forged coalition ties, all data in the corpus were then coded by Stone’s framework of policy paradox regarding how the movement goals were articulated, how the movement was framed, and what policy solutions were mobilized. In addition to identifying the movement actors and two competing coalitions, it is found that to forge coalition ties, the movement actors in the opposing coalitions articulated contested goals of standardized testing, framed the movement via symbols, numbers, and interests, as well as mobilized policy solutions via inducements, rights, and power. The findings have important and timely implications for policymakers and movement actors as they seek and advance on common ground to make substantive changes in education policy. 

The Opt-Out Movement in New York: A Grassroots Movement to Eliminate High-Stakes Testing and Promote Whole Child Public Schooling

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Zhe Chen ◽  
David Hursh ◽  
Bob Lingard
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Long Island ◽  
New York State ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Whole Child ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
York State ◽  
Opt Out

Purpose Over the last five years, approximately 50% of the students in Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island and 20% across New York State have opted out of the yearly standardized tests for third through eighth grade. This article focuses on two grassroots organizations, New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) and Long Island Opt Out (LIOO), the two parents who have been central to the organizations’ success, and the strategies and tactics that the two organizations have adopted to achieve such a high opt-out rate in New York. Context Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), third through eighth grade public school students have been required to take yearly standardized tests. The most recent version of the exams focused on assessing students, their teachers, and schools based on the Common Core State Standards. Many educators and parents have argued that the standards and assessments negatively affect student learning. In response, educators, parents, teachers, and students have lobbied and publicly testified in an effort to reduce the length of the exams, if not eliminate them. However, the testimonies have had almost no impact on the policymakers. Consequently, some parents concluded that the only way to influence policymakers is to get enough students to opt out of the tests so that the scores were not valid and thus could no longer be used to compare students and teachers within and across schools for accountability purposes. Research Design This study is drawn from a qualitative research project in which we conducted interviews to understand how the opt-out movement developed and the strategies it adopted in relation to high-stakes testing in New York. The interviews with two parent leaders from NYSAPE and LIOO are the main data source for this article. Findings NYSAPE and LIOO can be characterized as real grassroots social movements in that all members have input in the goals and organizing strategies, and unpaid leaders emerge from the membership. Further, because the organizations lack permanent funding, they have to be innovative in using media. By motivating and empowering others and using social media such as Facebook and Twitter, they built a large network and a strong base so that they could influence policymakers and respond quickly at the local and state levels. Conclusion Their organizing strategies exemplified the participatory and grassroots nature of the new social movements as theorized by McAlevey. The opt-out movement is pushing back not only against high-stakes testing but also against the larger neoliberal construction of parents as simply consumers of schooling, rather than as active, informed citizens. The movement also supports whole-child schooling.

Bilingualism and testing: A special case of bias. G. Valdes and R. Figueroa. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1994. Pp. 255.

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-296
Author(s):  
Evangeline Harris Stefanakis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Special Education ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
The United States ◽  
Minority Population ◽  
Bilingual Students ◽  
School Age ◽  
Educational Leader ◽  
Special Case

Guadalupe Valdes and Richard Figueroa carefully and clearly craft an argument for why bilingualism and testing constitute a special case of bias that continues to have serious consequences for today's school-age minority population in the United States. This argument could not be more timely, given the drive in the United States for standards and a rising wave of state-mandated standardized testing programs for all students, including bilinguals. Perhaps a summary of this book should be on the desk of every educational leader and policymaker charged with the mandate of administering standardized tests to bilingual students and comparing their scores with those of monolingual groups for the purpose of special education and vocational placements.

scholarly journals “We’re kind of at a pivotal point”: Opt Out’s vision for an ethic of care in a post-neoliberal era

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Schroeder ◽  
Elizabeth Currin ◽  
Todd McCardle
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
Ethic Of Care ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Corporate Influence ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Caring Relations

This article explores the Opt Out Florida (OOF) movement, a predominantly woman-led group seeking to dismantle neoliberal education policy by coaching children to boycott high-stakes standardized tests. Guided by Campbell’s assertion that neoliberalism will never disappear without a “gender revolution” and Noddings’s belief that those who have claimed power in the “traditional masculine structure” of our educational institutions will not readily cede their authority, we assert that movements like Opt Out are not only necessary to bring about a post-neoliberal future, but offer important insight into the role activist mothers may play in fulfilling that vision for all children. As a noticeably maternal movement, Opt Out displays a commitment to Noddings’s description of moral education and her assertion that “if an enterprise precludes…meeting the other in a caring relation, [one] must refuse to participate in that enterprise.” Understanding standardized tests as instruments of control meant to defund and privatize public education, Opt Out members actively resist them. Their ethic of care eschews corporate influence, and guides both their mission to return control of the classroom to the local level and their rejection of the deskilling and intensification of the teaching profession. Drawing on critical ethnographic data from OOF, we ultimately argue that the movement’s emphasis on the ideal moral and caring relations between school and child offers one example of what post-neoliberal education might look and sound like from a distinctly feminine perspective.

A Comparative Study of Higher-Order Thinking and Teaching in the United States and United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Vibhakumari Solanki ◽  
Brian R. Evans
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Standardized Test ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Higher Order Thinking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
The United Kingdom

The United States and the United Kingdom have used standardized high-stakes testing as a measurement of students’ cognitive level to determine success in the 21st century. Standardized tests have given teachers guidance to help them determine what to teach students and how to teach to the test. With such increased emphasis on high-stakes standardized tests, students are being taught based on tested content. This study evaluates the frequency of higher-and lower-order items in the respective country’s standardized test, and analyzes the teaching of higher-order thinking within classroom instruction.

scholarly journals The Future of School Social Work Practice: Current Trends and Opportunities

10.18060/89 ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
School Social Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
School Based ◽  
The Future

This article discusses the information on school social work practice in the United States and summarizes recent trends and their implications for the future of school social work. The number of school social workers and current infrastructure available for the development of school social work practice is reviewed. Five sociocultural trends are summarized that are affecting public schools as well as important school-based practice trends such as standardized testing, and high stakes accountability measures. The emerging practice trend of evidence-based practices is discussed in light of its standards and implications for school-based practice. Finally, essential knowledge for strengthening practice competencies to meet the future challenges of school-based practice is highlight.

High-Stakes Testing, Standardization, and Inequality in the United States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Au
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Racial Achievement

High-stakes standardized tests standardize which knowledge is assessed, and because consequences are tied to their results, they have the impact of standardizing classroom content, teaching, and learning. The result is that students whose cultural identities do not fit the standardized norms created by test-based must either adapt or are left out of the curriculum and the classroom. This happens in a few key ways. First, as schools face increased pressure to raise test scores, curriculum content that embraces the diversity of student history, culture, and experience gets pushed out. In turn, this standardization of content limits the diversity of teacher and student identities expressed in classroom pedagogical experiences. Finally, given the disparate racial achievement on high-stakes tests, students of color face more intense pressure to perform, while at the same time their educational experiences become increasingly restricted and less rich than those of affluent, whiter students. Additionally, even though educational research has consistently shown that high-stakes testing correlates most strongly with the socioeconomic backgrounds of students and their communities, policymakers and many educators presume that these tests are offer objective measurements of individual merit. This mistaken belief ulitmately serves to hide and justify existing inequalities in the United States under the notion of individual achievement. The overall result being that high-stakes, standardized tests reproduce educational inequalities associated with race and class in the United States.

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