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Portland School Board member Steve Buel, above, urges people to opt their children out of statewide assessments.
(Laura Frazier/Staff)
By Steve Buel
The recent Oregonian/OregonLive editorial criticizing Gov. Kate Brown for signing the opt-out bill missed the point. The opt-out movement is a protest movement, no different really than any other protest movement. It should be treated as such.
People protesting by opting their child out of high-stakes testing are not worried about their poor little middle-class kid failing the test, but are protesting an educational system we have built around testing instead of around good, solid comprehensive education. They are protesting as much for other children, including children in less advantaged neighborhoods who often have struggles their own children do not. They want good schools for all children. The testing is making this much more difficult and they want it to stop.
They want schools to stop using up so much class time on testing and instead use it for learning. They want engaging curriculum and activities for their children. They want their computer labs and libraries to stay open. They want us to stop spending millions on the testing and the surrounding accoutrements and free up these millions to be spent in the classroom. They want public education and our teachers' backgrounds, knowledge and caring to be respected. They want the time, energy and money spent on testing to be spent instead on making education better.
The Oregon Department of Education and our previous governor shut off for teachers and parents and educational activists any avenue to rectify the decisions surrounding the testing. They left only one avenue: protest. So people have taken it.
The bill Gov. Kate Brown signed into law only makes it easier to protest because you no longer have to have a religious reason or student disability to opt out. It is akin to allowing people to practice their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and the right to assemble peaceably. You do this even if you disagree with the protest goals.
If the governor doesn't want people to protest by opting out as she said in her news release accompanying her signing, then she needs to make sure the Oregon Department of Education, which she heads, develops avenues for people to address the testing issues. Not every state has accepted the federal government's testing regime. She could develop a testing system which tests children without the damaging high-stakes aspects we have now. Certainly our state government should be protesting the federal government's assertion of power over our educational system.
But, in the meantime, only protest is left, and I urge every parent who cares if our educational system is an excellent one to next year opt out of the high-stakes standardized testing which is so damaging to our children's learning.
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Steve Buel is a member of the Portland School Board and a founder of Oregon Save Our Schools.