Seattle had an incredible first year resisting the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).
To see what occurred statewide, see 48,000+ students refused the testocracy in Washington State by opting out. This isn’t an “anomaly”, it’s an uprising.
Let’s take a look at the final numbers for Seattle and see what happened. It’s also worth noting Seattle’s opt out numbers turned out to be higher than what was initially reported by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) in July.
11th Grade
Seattle’s 11th graders captured the media’s attention with their willingness to step up and opt out. This became such a phenomenon John Oliver mentioned Nathan Hale in his profanity laced take down of high stakes testing.
What do the final numbers look like? A mind blowing 76.1% of 11th graders opted out of the English Language Arts test (ELA) and 80.5% for Math.
For ELA, this translates into 2,425 students.
For Math, this translates into 2,557 students.
What’s also interesting is a significant number of 3rd through 8th grade students opted out. After the OSPI press release, the narrative became parents of 3rd through 8th grade students must be OK with the SBAC.
Granted, the final numbers aren’t as stunning as the 11th grade. That said, the final count was high enough to throw a wrench into the system. Each grade, from 3rd to 8th, failed to meet the 95% participation requirement. That’s quite an accomplishment for the first year of resistance to a brand new assessment.
It’s important to remember that these are the kids who will face the SBAC as a graduation requirement. Now is the time to rise up and push back on it, before more harm is done.
Below is a break down of the opt out numbers by grade for Seattle Public School (SPS) students. (Click on the image to enlarge. Opt outs are listed as “No Score”)
3rd Grade
In final report, total students with no score = 235. Total refusal rate of 5.3%
Another interesting trend, the higher the grade, the larger the refusal rate. Third grade starts out with a solid refusal rate of 5%, by eighth grade the refusal rate climbs to 10% for ELA and 11% for math.
How many SPS students opted out of the SBAC?
For the ELA assessment, the number is 3,985.
For the Math assessment, the number is 4,220.
SBAC results for the students whose parents did not opt-out are now available on the Source, close to six months later.
Yes, the day after I wrote the post, the results were out.
I understand the cut score was dropped to a 2 which means there is no validity to the test. If one has to continually adjust the cut score, what is the point of the test?
Even Randy Dorn does not want the SBAC used as a graduation requirement. He wants no test. I am sure that will not fly with the legislature.
http://mathunderground.blogspot.com/2015/08/dorn-wants-changes-made-to-hs.html
I propose the following:
http://mathunderground.blogspot.com/2015/08/replace-one-size-fits-all-diploma.html