American education historian Diane Ravitch has called for a nationwide "opt out" of state-mandated high-stakes standardized tests this spring. The former assistant secretary of the U.S. Education Department encouraged parents to disallow their kids to take the national Common Core exams as a way of informing policymakers that they are making the wrong move.
The Network for Public Education (NPE), a nonprofit education advocacy group, recently released a video featuring the 77-year-old historian making an appeal to the parents across the country to opt their kids out of this year's Common Core exams. In the video, Ravitch, who co-founded NPE, said that the high-stakes standardized tests "provide no useful information" and their scores are "useless."
The educational policy analyst advised parents that instead of allowing their kids to take the high-stakes standardized tests, they should demand for a full curriculum for their children. She also pointed out that the Common Core testing and test preparations consume valuable class time which could have been used to provide kids with a full curriculum.
Message from Diane Ravitch about Opt Out from Shoot4Education on Vimeo.
"Opt out is the only way you have to tell policymakers that they're heading in the wrong direction," Ravitch concluded in the video.
Ravitch's sentiments have been seconded by her NPE colleagues. NPE board member Yohuru Williams, professor and civil rights activist, said in a press release that opting out of the high-stakes standardized tests is one way of going against the corporate education reform that has been traumatizing a lot of students. Moreover, Leonie Haimson, another NPE board member, stated that the Common Core testing has undermined schools and hurt kids because of its unfair, unreliable and invalid method of assessing students' abilities.
According to the Washington Post, Ravitch has been actively leading the movement against corporate school modification since 2010. In her book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," she explained why she stopped supporting No Child Left Behind and test-based school reform after she found that these had demoralized teachers and narrowed curriculum.
The Common Core exams have ignited "opt out" movement in the recent years. The high-stakes standardized tests are widely criticized by experts and parents for being unfairly used to evaluate students, teachers and schools.
