To protect your child: For many students, the Big Test can be very stressful. To improve education for all students: Opting out is an effective way to protest the overuse and misuse of standardized tests, which forces schools to focus on the demands of the tests instead of the needs of students.
Dear Principal Name, I wanted to let you know that my child, name, will not take part in the name the test this year. We ask that you make arrangements for him/her to have a productive educational experience during the testing period. Thank you for all you do.
The Case for Opting Out If testing causes your child undue stress, or your child has an issue such as dyslexia that makes a timed test a living nightmare, then putting your child through testing feels like cold, hard punishment that they don't deserve. My feeling? Opt them out.
You can opt-out by informing the school that you intend to refuse the STAAR assessment by email or letter. Opt out Letter in English and Carta de Opt Out en espaol. Inform the school to move your child to a non-tested grade level classroom for each first day of a STAAR administration.
Common Reasons for Opt-Outs Subscriber opt-outs are caused by a few factors, including receiving content too frequently, irrelevant content, poor timing, lack of personalization, technical issues, and spammy or overly promotional content.
Opting out is exercising your parental right to have your child not participate in certain types of instruction. Opting out is a formal process that typically requires written notification or completion of an opt-out form distributed by your school.
School districts should appropriately document that the parent made a voluntary, informed decision to opt their child out. A school district must still take steps to provide opted-out EL students with access to its educational programs, monitor their progress, and offer EL services again if a student is struggling.
By opting out, you can…. Send the message that school time should be used for teaching and learning, not testing and test prep. Protest harmful uses of standardized exams. Demand better ways to assess and promote student learning. Prevent test results from being used to harm students, teachers and schools.