Jennifer Sabin is an Admin in Opt Out Polk and was the subject area of this article in The Ledger (below). She is an academic advisor at Southeastern University. Jennifer is also a sometime eighth grade Language Arts instructor from Polk County, Florida, with a BS in Communication from the University of Miami, a mom of three cute children and a former Polk County schoolhouse board candidate. Jennifer has been opting her kids out of Florida's high stakes tests since 2016.

This article was originally posted in The Ledger
Link to original article:
'Test and punish system': Parents can opt their children out of statewide testing
Kimberly C. Moore The Ledger
Published seven:13 a.m. ET Mar. 12, 2021

LAKELAND — Charlotte Sabin, 13, has been opting out of state Florida Standards Assessment testing for five years now, kickoff when she was in the 3rd grade, with no repercussions.

"I was kind of nervous because I was the simply i in my school doing information technology," she said about not participating with the rest of her third-grade grade. "But I likewise felt really absurd because I was sitting in that location going, 'All y'all have to take this test and I'grand going to go eat doughnuts.' The next year, I had a friend who opted out and information technology was cool considering that was the only time in my life I've e'er been a trendsetter."

Charlotte, who attends Lawton Chiles Middle Academy, goes to class on testing days, breaks the seal on her examination, fills out her proper name, then her mother, Jennifer Sabin, checks her out of school and the pair head to the doughnut shop. It has become an annual tradition.

Jennifer Sabin, of Opt Out Polk and daughter, Charlotte, xiii.

Information technology was Sabin who talked to her daughter almost what she feels is the importance of opting out of statewide testing, something she and other critics refer to as the "examination and punish organisation." That's because kids who practice well in class otherwise are retained in the third grade if they don't pass the test. In addition, high schoolhouse seniors who pass all their classes tin can be held back from graduating if they don't laissez passer the FSA. And teachers whose students don't brand something known every bit "acceptable yearly progress," tin have bonuses withheld, which, they say, is unfair for teachers instructing struggling students.

Charlotte said her mom "explained that it was a really important affair for her … she explained that it helped the teachers and the students. It would be a great matter to do because it could assist bring alter. And if you do this, other people might do it, too. I like helping people. It'due south fun."

Sabin said opting out of testing is something about parents don't realize they can do — despite what whatever ambassador or guidance counselor might tell parents.

Opt Out Polk

Sabin heads upwards a group chosen Opt Out Polk, which helps to respond questions from parents who are considering having their kid not take the statewide test. Some parents say the test gives their children crippling feet, while others say 1 examination should not brand or pause a kid's progression from 3rd class to fourth. Failing any portion of the FSA can as well keep a high schoolhouse educatee from graduating.

Read more about opting out

To read more about opting out of testing, become to: https://theoptoutfloridanetwork.wordpress.com/

Standardized testing in Polk County began last week and lasts for several more than weeks as students in different grades and in different subjects fill in the bubbling on their answer sheets, click on the right answers on a computer or write essays.

"I call up I first realized it considering somebody told me, 'Have you heard of Opt Out?'" Sabin recalled. "I was frustrated with the way the test was being used and I didn't want my kids to participate in that system of evaluation."

Sabin teamed upward with The Opt Out Florida Network, finding a little-known option for parents: the good cause exemption, which allows parents to use other assessments instead of the FSA, or a student-work portfolio from throughout the school year.

Jennifer has been opting out of the FSA for years. Charlotte, seen here on the right, is noticeably younger in this photo.

According to the Polk County Public Schools webpage, the determination of a good cause exemption for promotion to fourth grade includes:

  • Standford Achievement Examination, Tenth Edition, scoring higher up the 45th percentile.
  • STAR Reading Assessment — scoring at or higher up the 50th percentile.
  • Istation ISIP Reading Assessment — scoring at or above the 50th percentile.

"Polk County Public Schools fully supports the option of third-form portfolios equally outlined in (state statute), which states that a educatee who demonstrates through a portfolio that he/she is performing at least at level 2 on the statewide standardized assessment is eligible for good crusade exemption," the website reads.

It is not known how many Polk County Public Schools students opt out considering district officials say they do not keep rails of that statistic.

Sabin, who is an bookish adviser at Southeastern Academy, said the examination was non originally designed to exist used the manner the state uses it.

"There's no proficient reason to take the FSA," Sabin said. "Information technology wasn't designed to evaluate students the manner Florida uses it. It wasn't designed to evaluate teachers the way they use   it. The FSA causes impairment to teachers and schools. We know it correlates strongly with socio- economical condition. It makes it difficult for students from depression socio-economical status to perform well."

Pros and cons of standardized tests

State standardized testing came about under the tardily Democratic Gov Lawton Chiles, who adult the Florida Comprehensive Cess Examination — or FCAT — in the 1990s. When Republican Gov. Jeb Bush was sworn into office in 1999, he developed his A-Plus Plan, which for the first time tied state testing to school grades and held struggling schools accountable — assuasive students at those schools to transfer to better-performing public schools, lease schools or even individual schools and to take their per-pupil funding with them.

And that necktie to money is when things got competitive and complicated with testing.

According to the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which "promotes educational excellence for every child in America via quality research, analysis, and commentary, likewise as advancement and exemplary lease school authorizing in Ohio," standardized tests offer objective assessment.

They measure "students based on a similar set of questions, are given under about   identical testing conditions, and are graded by a machine or blind reviewer. They are intended to provide an accurate, unfiltered measure out of what a student knows," the institute states.

The institute says the tests offer officials the chance to compare student achievement at the classroom, schoolhouse, local and statewide levels.

And finally, the Fordham Institute says, "like information technology or not, standardized exam data remain the best way to hold schools accountable for their academic functioning." The measures enable education officials to identify the schools that need intervention, extra help or even closure.

But opponents say the playing field is not level because students are not even so.

According to the Clan for Supervision and Curriculum Development, which has 113,573 members who are superintendents principals teachers and education advocates from more than than 129 countries, there are multiple reasons standardized tests are problematic.

"Standardized tests exist for authoritative, political, and financial purposes, not for educational ones," the ASCD website reads. "Test companies make billions. Politicians get elected by promising improve exam results. Administrators get funding and avert harsh penalties by boosting test scores. Everyone benefits except the children. For them, standardized testing is worthless and worse."

The clan points out that "test companies (a multibillion-dollar a year industry) not only industry the tests, they also industry the courses and programs that can be taken to 'prepare for the test.'" And, the association says, tests favor those who have socio- economic advantages because their parents tin can buy them books, computers and even tutors to help them.

"If yous don't have the money, and your school is in a low socio-economical area that gets less funding than rich suburban schools, then yous're not getting the same preparation for the exam every bit those at the higher socio-economic levels exercise," the clan website reads.

The association added that standardized tests don't value the diversity of students taking the tests, who accept different cultural backgrounds, different levels of proficiency in the English language, different learning and thinking styles, different family backgrounds, and different past experiences.

The association says the tests cause unwarranted stress for students. And, because teachers know that test scores may bear upon their salaries and chore security, they and their administrators have been caught on multiple occasions cheating.

In December 2008, an Atlanta Periodical-Constitution newspaper investigation institute suspect test scores at five Atlanta-area elementary schools. An investigation was launched and specially appointed land investigators cited multiple cheating violations, along with organized and systematic misconduct in Atlanta  schools.  The  land investigators' report named 178 teachers,principals and administrators at 44 Atlanta schools, with 80 educators confessing to cheating, co-ordinate to the report. More than than 20 pleaded guilty, while 11 were institute guilty of felony charges.

Not all testing is bad

Sabin said that while she does not want her children to participate in something she views as ultimately unfair to anybody involved, she really has no problem with teachers testing their students.

"In that location is a common misperception that those of us who support opting out are anti- assessment," Sabin said. "It'south that assessment washed by the professional person educator that we rely on every bit to where (students) are and where they demand to be. The teachers are constantly assessing what their students need to know    The five question quizzes — those are the assessments that are valuable. The stop of class exams do function differently…… It's part of their course class. They're going to accept a thirty% hitting to their class, which is going to injure their (grade point boilerplate). I don't advocate opting out of EOC."

She said, ultimately, FSA and tests similar it are preparing students who want to go to college and graduate school, but not all students are headed in that direction.

"I don't think we need to spend x years of a kid's education to fill in a bubble in case they desire to become to grad school," she said.

Every bit for Charlotte, without ever taking a standardized exam, she is heading to Harrison School for the Arts side by side year — a high-performing public schoolhouse with a highly competitive selection procedure.

Jennifer Sabin of Opt out Polk and girl, Charlotte, 13

"I'yard actually surprised that I got in, myself," Charlotte said. "I would say that I'thou pretty good at artistic writing. After college, ane affair I plan to do is become a volume editor considering I can go paid to read books. And encourage (authors) to make their book better and grow as a person, as well."

Ledger reporter Kimberly C. Moore can be reached at kmoore@theledger.com or 863-802- 7514. Follow her on Twitter at @KMooreTheLedger.