Ohio Schools Punish Children Who Opt Out of Common Core Testing

Common Core has been a train-wreck from the beginning, but now it has become appalling! For the past three weeks, Ohio students have been taking the standardized PARCC assessments of Common Core. Thankfully, parents have been given the opportunity to opt their children out, but stories are now surfacing these children are being punished for doing so.
Crystal Shultz’s child who attends Clear Fork Valley schools, is not welcome in the school until the testing is over. Every day the students miss for opting out will be considered unexcused absences.
In Logan Elementary Schools, the students who opted out, were given extra assignments to do while the other students were taking the PARCC assessments. Although this was actually what a lot of parents wanted, the test-taking students received an extra recess while the students who opted out had to sit inside and do work.
Miranda West, who opted her child out, contacted the administration and was told the students were being, “rewarded for working hard for hours of testing.” Her child was not given extra recess or a means to earn the extra recess.
North Ridgeville Middle School is resorting to public humiliation. Michelle Dolezal’s daughter is just one case: “Her math teacher passed a goodie box around the room (candy, homework passes, etc). When the box reached my daughter, the teacher snatched it out of her hands and told her she wasn’t allowed to take anything because she didn’t take the Common Core tests.”
This clearly bothered Michelle: “My problem was not with her losing out on candy,” Michelle explained, “but that she made an example of her in front of the class.”
A similar story was told in Carlisle Middle School from a source that would like to remain anonymous: “The class was given big candy bars to eat in front of my son who was bluntly told ‘no’ to getting one. At 10 yrs old, he didn’t understand and found it very unfair.”
The Dover Public School forced Jennifer Flaherty’s 10-year old son to sit still at a desk with no materials for up to 90 minutes. Not only is Mrs. Flaherty’s son 10-years old, but he has also been assigned an IEP, or an Individualized Education Program given to students with disabilities. When the parent complained, the school humiliated him by putting the 4th grader in a kindergarten class.
In North Union Public Schools, all students who completed the Common Core tests got to go laser tagging, but students who opted out were not allowed to go.
Zane Trace School Districts had one of the worst punishments for students according to Shelena Penrod. First only students who took the test were allowed water. Then the next day the kids that had opted out had to pass out the bottled water to the students who were taking the test, but were not allowed to have any for themselves. On top of that, they had their movie day taken away. She said, “They are treated like prisoners.”
In Jennings Community Learning Center, Mindy Chaboudy’s child was told that she is no longer allowed to attend a game night.
In Delphos Middle School, students were told that they would not be allowed to go on the next field trip to the park and they would be prohibited from coming to the school dance.
These actions by the school’s administration and teachers are absolutely unacceptable. When a student breaks a rule there should be negative consequences but according to Ohio state law, it is completely legal for students to opt out of these assessments. It is, therefore, unfair to these students to be treated as criminals or outcasts.
It was once said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” There are teachers, parents, students and citizens that need to raise their voice against this type of behavior in our public schools. It is an American tradition to be part of the dissent. Schools should stop punishing students and parents for exercising their rights!
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the parents who had the courage to speak out against these punishments. And special thanks to my editor and friend Matthew Baradihi.
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Reagan Rothbard March 18, 2015 , 4:21 am Vote0
Thanks for writing about this, Michael – to punish these children for opting out is plain wrong. I hope more awareness can make a difference.
Toni Sopocko March 18, 2015 , 2:05 pm Vote1
Working hard to turn our children into compliant drones. Heinous.
Blue Square March 18, 2015 , 4:38 pm Vote0
Once again, we see that “choices” within a system of mandatory participation aren’t really choices at all. Wow. Wow.
Lauren and Tony Benedict March 18, 2015 , 4:57 pm Vote1
I tell people I have no intention of putting my son (now 6 months) into public school. Of all the questions I get, “why” is never one of them. I live in Ohio myself, and the thing I don’t get is why parents will swap school horror stories in the back to school sections, but won’t do anything to change it. I’m not suggesting changing the system, Just their children’s experience, that can be done much easier and quicker than any system wide change.
Sarah Meyer March 18, 2015 , 8:15 pm Vote0
I didn’t find out you could “opt out” until it was really too late – Testing for my kids started on a Monday, and I started reading all about the opt out stuff over the weekend…
Anyways, I told my daughter I was thinking about doing that and she PANICKED! My son would have been thrilled, but she… oh man… she needs that validation that she’s “smarter” than everybody else (she’s not… but yes, very intelligent). Standardized tests are just too easy for her. She stands out on the results (they usually compare student to school to state averages and put them on a chart) If her score isn’t in the 90-100th percentile she’s truly upset with herself.
Way too much of her self-worth is tied into these damn test scores… and she does well. I really wonder what it does to kids who don’t do well?? Are they just crushed? That’s awful.
Forrest Blank March 19, 2015 , 5:53 pm Vote1
Thank you Michael for the information.
I think it is courageous of the parents to come out and talk about this knowing that they will receive “why don’t you conform” messages and be treated as if they did something wrong, along with the “punishment” of their children for standing up and saying “no” to standardized testing.
It is my idealized hope that this will show some parents that a system based on the threat and use of force does not work. “Fighting back” against school administration and teachers only makes you look like the “crazy one”, because so many people don’t want, or can’t, think for themselves. Anyone who “dares” to argue against the “most educated” is “crazy” in the eyes of these indoctrinated individuals. Most only care about their specific job performance as dictated by these standardized tests. As I often tell my son, “if you don’t like the way they play the game, then don’t play their game.”
I pulled my son out of school as the school administration told me that they couldn’t deal with his behaviour in school because they couldn’t keep him engaged. They would repeatedly tell me, “we can give him the resources he needed, but you have to first get him certified by a doctor to having ADD”. I of course asked, “are you going to pay for the doctor?” they looked at me like I had just asked them if they could rotate their heads around 360 degrees. They of course said, “no”.
I tried to explain to them that outside the school walls that when they’ve been contracted to perform work such as “educating my child”, and that they were already receiving payments to give my child the resources that he needed, that to ask me to incur costs so that they could perform their job was unreasonable. They of course disagreed. Their justification was that certification was required for him to receive the services, “because that’s the way it is”.
In the end, I felt that my child was disruptive to those children who wanted to be educated, and he wasn’t getting the support that was available but being withheld because of my refusal to jump through hoops and incur costs that should be upon the school to take care if they require it. Personally, I feel it’s a case of unequal treatment where as my son is being asked to do things that another child doesn’t have to in order to receive the same education. Now my son is not being educated, but rather learning about the world far more than other children his age and in areas such as microbiology, algebra, computer science, and the guitar. None of which he would be allowed to pursue within the confines of a school environment. More importantly, he’s happier and I’m taking my responsibility as a parent more seriously this way.
I won’t suggest it isn’t harder for me and my wife this way, but in the end he learns how to learn and is free to learn about things that he wouldn’t get otherwise. Seems like a win to me.
Cathy Cuthbert March 19, 2015 , 7:58 pm Vote1
I have to disagree with the general sentiments in the article and in the comments. I know this is a difficult situation for many families. I have great sympathy for them, but only to a point.
Here’s the deal–when you put your children in gov’t school you have made a deal with the devil. This is not a case of the schools or common core “not working.” Both work just fine. You don’t understand their purpose.
Once you put your children in gov’t school, you and they have no rights–the Supreme Courts says so–and they become the raw material for propaganda and mind control experimentation. There is no negotiating with the system. There are no “good schools.” There are no ” good teachers.” There is only an inhumane children’s prison system and they are the inmates, the victims. You have a stark choice. You can take the route of convenience and leave them to rot or you can be a true parent and take them out.
That’s it. It’s that simple. I know it isn’t easy, but it is simple.
Leanne Baker March 19, 2015 , 8:13 pm
@katy0shae I would have reacted the same way as your daughter when I was her age. I absolutely begged my parents to be able to attend the public high school! I remember Joan Baez came to the high school and my parents opted for me to miss it. I thought then — and I still believe now — that I should be able to decide for myself whether I agreed with her philosophy. In today’s world, if your children are in public school, I would guess you have to work doubly hard to counter all of the effects of their “education.” The choices are not easy.
Joe K. March 19, 2015 , 9:37 pm Vote0
If it is at all possible, these parents should pull their children from the public school and home educate. As for libertarians, public schools should be an abomination to all of us. We are highly offended by having our property forcibly taken from us to pay for their socialist indoctrination camps. Authoritarians will never change. They assault your children every day with misinformation, mental, and physcial abuse. Furthermore, if they are SO GREAT, why is this country in the shape it is in? Public Schools are an old worn out idea that would serve everyone well if they disappeared into the dust bin of history forever, only to be used as the model that no one should ever adopt and as a complete failure. I know there are teachers out there who are good people, but they would do much better in a free market system and as tutoring services to a free market based education. Thankfully, they are collapsing as every where across this country their prisons are rotting out and they have no money to pay for new ones….they are being forced to make decisions between getting pay raises or new buildings. Many are begging county supervisors to put bond issues out to raise taxes to pay for their socialism. It is collapsing so be patient and I think there future is bright as this whole system goes away. It will force people to get creative and be involved in the education of their children.
Joe K. March 19, 2015 , 9:39 pm Vote0
Sorry about my grammatical errors. I was in a hurry with my children and cooking supper! 😉
Sarah Meyer March 19, 2015 , 9:41 pm Vote1
Dear Cathy,
Some of us are not able to home school. Some folks (like me) wish they could, some folks just don’t see the negative effects of public school, because they went to public school and they “turned out fine” right?
In any case, is it not an important topic of discussion none-the-less? The answer isn’t always home school. It can’t be.
I’d like to think the answer is achievable, and that would be options. Options for true school choice. True school choice, to me, looks like pay-for-education, with quality options being available for folks in all financial situations… a privatized school system.
Unfortunately we’re a very, very long way off from that even remotely becoming reality, so I think it’s worthwhile to talk about ways to improve the current system. After all, our children are there now.
Leanne, yes – having conversations with the kids daily (and their teachers) to find out what crazy things are being put into their heads. I am always asking my kids “so what did you think about that?” Always probing deeper. Plus… my kids know me, so they tend to come to me with the stuff their teacher says that they know will get a strong reaction out of me 🙂 I think they think it’s a fun game. Try to get mom on a rant today!
Blue Square March 20, 2015 , 1:08 am
@katy0shae Right on, Sarah. Homeschooling is great, but it’s not the whole universe of education.
I am enjoying imagining the things your kids like to report to you. 🙂
Myles Davidson March 20, 2015 , 5:34 am
Excellent speech on Common Core by Dr. Luke Pesta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si-kx5-MKSE&spfreload=10
Any talk by Charlotte Iserbyt is worth listening to as she knows the education system like the back of her hand. She wrote the book “The Deliberate Dumbing Down Of America”
And of course anything by John Taylor Gatto is brilliant. An interview with him called The Ultimate History Lesson done by Richard Grove of ‘tragedyandhope.com’ is a mind blower. A must watch to understand what’s happening with education and how we ended up in this mess!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxCuc-2tfgk
Cathy Cuthbert March 21, 2015 , 8:56 am Vote1
Dear Sarah,
Thanks for your reply. Just wanted to mention that nowhere in my short post did i say anything about homeschooling. Interesting how your thinking on this seems to binary–gov’t school or homeschool. Does this mean that homeschooling has reached a new level? 😉
One can send one’s children to private school. Not all private schools are prohibitively expensive. There are many small, inexpensive schools popping up all the time in response to the latest disgusting gov’t school “reform.”
Homeschooling is, however, the best choice for many reasons and education is only one of them. Clearly, i know that not everyone can homeschool. However, after having homeschooled, i can tell you with absolute certainty that many more people can than realize it.
As I said, the answer to the school dilemma is simple although not easy.
Best, Cathy