Hopefully the opt-out movement is (finally...) reaching a critical mass. Large-scale (200 students) walkouts in Colorado and a recent article in the New York Times
highlighting the grotesquely wasteful (ab)use of standardized tests are
starting to make waves. (I would have liked to see the NYT article go
into more detail on the opportunity costs--60 to 80 days spent on
testing per year!?!--of these tests, as I attempted to here.)
I see opting-out as the only real solution at this point, since both
Republicans and Democrats have proven themselves to be utterly worthless (see: No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top).
1. Opting out devastates the
school's ranking, especially if the good kids opt out. (I hope/assume
that this was encouraged by these high-achieving students and/or their
parents.) This in turn pressures the school board to do
something--preferably/hopefully dropping these asinine ranking systems
and in turn, their tests.
2. As more students opt out, the easier it is to see the data being collected is not good data. Hopefully people start to realize they're spending billions of dollars
collecting data that's between dubious and worthless, again pressuring
school boards--already strapped for cash--to jettison these tests.
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