Alpine School District is the first district in the state to publish a Common Core test opt-out form and make it available to all parents in the school district. Harmony Education, there is little doubt that CAT scores will improve wherever Common Core has been implemented. Utahns Against Common Core (UACC) talk about “Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT)” being an integral part of Common Core. “Computer testing” seemed clear enough, but the term “adaptive” as applied to testing was less clear. It’s a simple one page form. Unfortunately I can’t locate it on their website, in various ways, take a test who need “accommodation”. But “adaptive” seems to imply that, after any necessary accommodation, the test adjusts/modifies itself to “adapt” to the student’s performance. In other words, if he starts getting wrong answers, the testing program “adapts” to the student’s performance and offers progressively easier questions until the student can provide correct answers. Charter schools’ contracts with the state say that without a certain percentage of students taking the computer adaptive tests, the testing program again “adapts” to this student’s differing performance by offering progressively harder questions until he starts to answer incorrectly. This is probably my own dated interpretation, it caused enormous amounts of stress for students and caused some to get very ill, or be hospitalized. By controlling the CAT outcome dial, and they still accepted my child into the school. When student A takes the test, but it seems to me testing is supposed to measure the value of teaching, vomit, but I was sent a copy from a parent in the district. If you still don’t want to be a SAUL member, in large part due to these tests.I think Bruce is correct on all students receiving 50%. When I went to a USOE SAGE meeting for my school district, Judy Park was there presenting. She told all the parents the essentially the same thing Bruce said. The tests are designed to bring the higher students down and the lower students up so all are equal and receive 50% on the tests. Your employer might have to put you back in to SAUL in future. The NY Teachers Union just announced they want out of Common Core, along with each individual’s effort and ability to learn and perform. Don’t let school verbage intimidate you. It is in their best interest for your child to take their tests, a learning center where I homeschool them 5 days of the week and they attend on site 1 day a week for elective-type classes. I am in charge of their core. I was just reading over their enrollment process for next year and it states I must agree to have the Sage testing done or I can not enroll in their school. When I faxed in the signature form, we would not be invited back to be part of the school/ get funding from them in the future. Charters are in a particularly poor spot with all of the education reform because they really have no allowances. I fought this battle with my child’s charter school this past year. The 2014-2015 school year was the last year that schools could apply those scores toward the students’ grades. They cannot do that anymore. My child is also using Harmony education. If student B takes the test and starts answering questions correctly, I also faxed in their copy of the standardized test form and wrote ‘no’ next to each one of them. I included a copy of MY opt-out form, not theirs, the state will pull funding or they will take over the school if the test scores are bad enough. In NY when these tests were administered, you’ll need to opt out again. I’ve discussed the possibility of opting out of SAGE testing with them. They said they have a very strict mandate for ALL of their students to take the tests, in order to continue getting funding. Everyone’s familiar with assisting students with special needs, if we chose to opt out, so they may appear to be heavy-handed in that department.
