Presentation about Opt Out delivered on April 28, 2013 at Defending Public Education Cradle to College Conference

1. UNITED OPT OUT NATIONAL
Ceresta Smith, NBCT
United Opt Out Administrator

2. Be The Wrench The Machine
United Opt Out Administrators “The machine that is corporate reform needs
to have a wrench thrown into it. It must be brought to a screeching halt.”
Smith, Ceresta “My greatest concern is the implementations of DoEd policies
have many accepting fiction as true fact. High stakes test scores do not indicate
that students have learned deeply, claimed ownership to knowledge and
learning, obtained the ability to work with others, or developed the ability to
think creatively. Nor do they really reflect the quality of a school or a teacher.
They suggest trends in regards to cultural practices, social class, and the ability
to learn test taking strategies. And to a certain extent they reveal aptitude based
on assimilation and cultural bias. The Department of Education promotes
these misnomers. The student who scores high on a single math test is going to
receive more respect and validation than the young man who scores poorly on
a single math test but is able to create a practical and stunning fashion design
using recycled materials. Consequently, we are wounding instead of
empowering students, teachers, and the overall academic culture. All of us
need validation, not a fictitious grade stamped on our school, a misleading
number stamped into our consciousness, or a bonus check for a random
number with which we may or may not have had something to do.”

3. Parental Rights
Parental rights, especially in the area of education, are broadly protected by United States
Supreme Court decisions. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that parents have the
fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children. The 14th
Amendment
provides for equal protection.
In Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 535 (1925), the U.S. Supreme 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.”
In recognition of both the right and responsibility of parents to control their children’s
education, the U.S. Supreme Court has further 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 obligations the State can neither supply nor hinder.” Prince v.
Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 166 (1944);
The U.S. Supreme Court has also recognized 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 to the U.S. Constitution and 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, 401 (1923).
Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause: “If a law discriminates between one group
of people and another, the government must have a rational basis for doing so. A law that
discriminates on the basis of a suspect classification -- that is, it makes a distinction based on race,
gender, or another trait that has historically resulted in discriminatory treatment -- is
constitutional only if there is a very compelling reason for the distinction.”

4. Ways To Opt Out
1. Opt your child out of taking state standardized
assessments that are used to fulfill the requirements
of NCLB.
2. Become involved with or donate money to
established organizations that are involved in direct
actions against state standardized assessments.
3. Demand a copy of your child’s completed
assessment.

5. Get and Stay Informed
“Even within the same school, lower-achieving students often are taught by less-experienced teachers, as well as by teachers
who received their degrees from less-competitive colleges, according to a new study by researchers from the Stanford
Graduate School of Education and the World Bank. The study, using data from one of the nation's largest school districts,
also shows that student class assignments vary within schools by a teacher's gender and race.
In a paper published in this month's issue of Sociology of Education, the researchers present the results of a comprehensive
analysis of teacher assignments in the nation's fourth-largest school district, Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Their
findings identify trends that may contribute to teacher turnover and achievement gaps nationwide.”
http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2013/pr-school-teacher-assignment-042313.html
http://www.asanet.org/journals/soe/Apr13SOEFeature.pdf
“Critics of the contemporary reform regime argue that these initiatives, though seemingly sensible in their original framing,
are motivated by interests other than educational improvement and are causing genuine harm to American students and
public schools. Here are some of the criticisms: the reforms have self-interest and profit motives, not educational
improvement, as their basis; corporate interests are reaping huge benefits from these reform initiatives and
spending millions of dollars lobbying to keep those benefits flowing; three big foundations (Gates, Broad, and Walton
Family) are funding much of the backing for the corporate reforms and are
spending billions to market and sell reforms that don't work; ancillary goals of these reforms are to bust teacher unions,
disempower educators, and reduce spending on public schools; standardized testing is enormously expensive in terms both of
public expenditures and the diversion of instruction time to test prep; over a third of charter schools deliver
"significantly worse" results for students than the traditional public schools from which they were diverted; and, finally, that
these reforms have produced few benefits and have actually caused harm, especially to kids in disadvantaged areas and
communities of color. (On that last overall point, see this scathing new report from the Economic Policy Institute.)”
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/the-coming-revolution-in-public-education/275163/
http://www.epi.org/files/2013/bba-rhetoric-trumps-reality.pdf

6. Get and Stay Informed
“Even within the same school, lower-achieving students often are taught by less-experienced teachers, as well as by teachers
who received their degrees from less-competitive colleges, according to a new study by researchers from the Stanford
Graduate School of Education and the World Bank. The study, using data from one of the nation's largest school districts,
also shows that student class assignments vary within schools by a teacher's gender and race.
In a paper published in this month's issue of Sociology of Education, the researchers present the results of a comprehensive
analysis of teacher assignments in the nation's fourth-largest school district, Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Their
findings identify trends that may contribute to teacher turnover and achievement gaps nationwide.”
http://news.stanford.edu/pr/2013/pr-school-teacher-assignment-042313.html
http://www.asanet.org/journals/soe/Apr13SOEFeature.pdf
“Critics of the contemporary reform regime argue that these initiatives, though seemingly sensible in their original framing,
are motivated by interests other than educational improvement and are causing genuine harm to American students and
public schools. Here are some of the criticisms: the reforms have self-interest and profit motives, not educational
improvement, as their basis; corporate interests are reaping huge benefits from these reform initiatives and
spending millions of dollars lobbying to keep those benefits flowing; three big foundations (Gates, Broad, and Walton
Family) are funding much of the backing for the corporate reforms and are
spending billions to market and sell reforms that don't work; ancillary goals of these reforms are to bust teacher unions,
disempower educators, and reduce spending on public schools; standardized testing is enormously expensive in terms both of
public expenditures and the diversion of instruction time to test prep; over a third of charter schools deliver
"significantly worse" results for students than the traditional public schools from which they were diverted; and, finally, that
these reforms have produced few benefits and have actually caused harm, especially to kids in disadvantaged areas and
communities of color. (On that last overall point, see this scathing new report from the Economic Policy Institute.)”
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/the-coming-revolution-in-public-education/275163/
http://www.epi.org/files/2013/bba-rhetoric-trumps-reality.pdf