Each and every year there are emotional struggles between parents and school and state officials over standardized testing. Can parents opt out their children from these assessments?  Unfortunately, many of these battles occur privately as individual families struggle one at a time without the support or even knowledge of the community.  Thankfully, some families publicized their struggle.  Unfortunately, the outcome is usually the same.

Whether it's the old NECAPs or the even more controversial Smarter Balanced assessments officials attempt to bludgeon parents into compliance with state law, which they misinterpret to their advantage.  State law,  RSA 193-C:6, requires districts to administer statewide assessments, but it does not say that children can be forced to take these assessments in opposition to the objections of their parent.  One principal went to far as to confine a student in his office, refused to allow her to call her parent, and insisted that she take the assessments in opposition to her parent's written instructions to the school or face immediate suspension.  This "principal of the year" violated multiple school policies, which does not allow a principal to bully a student against his parent's instructions, nor does it allow the principal to suspend a student without cause.

State law acknowledges that exemptions are allowed for certain students, but fails to explicitly define those exemptions.  The legislature allows the state board of education to create rules, definining "exemptions" and their rules were written in a very restrictive manner.  Here's an excerpt from the department's website:

Students with very serious, chronic, and fragile medical conditions can and do participate successfully in statewide assessment. However, there are rare and unique situations in which a student is unable to participate in any part of statewide assessment.  Such decisions must be made with the greatest care and restraint. Every student has the right to participate in statewide assessment in order to show what  he or she knows and is able to do as compared to state curriculum standards.

Rule of Thumb:

If the student can receive instruction, the student can participate in statewide assessment.

As result every year parents are badgered by school admininstrators.  Yet every year parents push back simply refuse to allow their children to take these assessments. This is the result of overly restrictive regulations: parent refusals have become time-honored tradition in New Hampshire.  Notice that parent refusals are given an honorable mention in the department of educations yearly summaries.

It is extremely important for parents to understand that they do not need to ask permission from their public servants to opt out of testing.  They must instruct their public servants in writing that they object to these assessments and that their child will not be taking them so there is no misunderstanding.  

The NH Department of Education claims that the Smarter Balanced Assessments will not measure student "dispositions," i.e student values, attitudes and beliefs, based upon a letter from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consorsia, dated February 18, 2014. 

However, parents need explicit reassurance that "dispositional" questions will not be on the statewide assessments for several reasons: 

• the trend has been for more and more dispositional or behavioral surveys are being administered to students statewide, many times without parental consent;
• the Smarter Balanced website still discusses dispositional measurements:  "Smarter Balanced recognizes that college readiness encompasses a wide array of knowledge, skills, and dispositions, only some of which will be measured by the Smarter Balanced assessments."
• there's no effective safeguard against data-mining of private student information - once this private information gets out there is no retrieving it;
• parents have not been allowed to exercise their right to review and inspect these statewide assessment, Smarter Balanced, as required by law, RSA 193-C:10.

Moreover, the NH legislature also removed the word "dispositions" from Senate Bill 48 in 2013, restricting statewide assessments to measuring only a student's "knowledge and skills." 

Compare the language of the original bill: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2013/SB0048_i.html

New Hampshire's student assessment system should promote and measure the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that lead students to graduate from high schools ready for college and career.

to the final bill that was signed into law: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2013/SB0048.html

New Hampshire's student assessment system should promote and measure knowledge and skills that lead students to graduate from high schools ready for college and career.

However, once this current legislature adjourns, there will be little to no remaining memory of any legislative prohibition against dispositional questions unless that prohibition is explicitly placed in state law. 

Please support Sen. Sam Cataldo's amendment (below) to make an explicit prohibition in state law against dispositional or psychological questions on statewide assessments.

Please contact the House Education Committee members, asking for their support of Sen. Cataldo's amendment.

Phone numbers and emails addresses for each of the 20 House Education Committee members can be found here:

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H05

Or,  you can email the entire House Education Committee with the following email address: HouseEducationCommittee@leg.state.nh.us

Sen. Cataldo, Dist. 6

April 9, 2014

2014-1306s

08/04

Amendment to SB 343

Amend the bill by replacing all after the enacting clause with the following:

     1 New Paragraph; Statewide Education Improvement and Assessment Program; Duties of the Legislative Oversight Committee. Amend RSA 193-C:8 by inserting after paragraph X the following new paragraph:

               XI.(a) Compare the current educational standards with common core standards, to determine which contains the level of rigor that the New Hampshire students will need to enter a higher educational program and to succeed in the 21st century;

                   (b) Examine how the common core standards relate to New Hampshire’s current standards, and examine the impact, if any, of applying national standards to local schools;

                  (c) Examine whether the common core standards remove local input from what teachers should teach; and

                  (d) Study whether common core standards are at least as rigorous as New Hampshire’s current educational standards and examine the impact, if any, at the local level of the use of common core standards.

     2 Areas of Assessment. Amend RSA 193-C:5 to read as follows:

                 193-C: Areas of Assessment. The academic areas to be assessed shall include, but not be limited to: reading and language arts, mathematics, science, history, geography, civics, and economics. The assessment shall be directly related to the assessment of student knowledge and skills and not psychological data including assessment of noncognitive skills or attributes, psychological resources, mindsets, learning strategies, attitudes, dispositions, or social skills.

     3 Pupil Identification. Amend RSA 193-C:8, IX to read as follows:

                IX. Review the unique pupil identification system established in RSA 193-E department of education compliance with RSA 193-E:5 and monitor and propose legislation needed as a result of the review.

     4 Repeal. The following are repealed:

                 I. RSA 194-C:11, relative to the school administrative unit legislative oversight committee.

                 II. RSA 194-C:12, relative to the duties of the school administrative unit legislative oversight committee.

      5 Effective Date. This act shall take effect upon its passage.