Who are the parents fighting standardized testing?
A lot of attention has been focused on the growing number of parents opting their children out of standardized testing in public schools. The opt out movement began in New York and the west coast, but is now surfacing in Georgia.
Who are these parents?
A new survey by researchers from Teachers College, Columbia University tackled that question, discovering through national surveys of opt out groups that, “The typical opt out activist is a highly educated, white, married, politically liberal parent whose children attend public school and whose household median income is well above the national average.”
And it is not just testing that drives activists: The survey showed, “In particular, respondents feel that judging teacher performance by students’ standardized test scores is unfair. They also are protesting the narrowing of the curriculum, corporatization/privatization of education, and the implementation of the Common Core State Standards.”
To read more, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.
About the Author
Maureen Downey has written editorials and opinion pieces about local, state and federal education policy since the 1990s.
