Stopping Child Abuse through Opting Out

From physical to mental, child abuse can take on many forms.  Although it tends to primarily associated with what happens in an abusive home or relationship, it can also be the result of irresponsible policymaking.  Even though testing can be a useful diagnostic tool, the results of the high-stakes nature of testing as a result of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are in many ways, perpetuating child abuse.  The good news is that there is a growing resistance movement. Additionally, the insistence upon using this flawed method of evaluation gives the movement a clear target that if eliminated, will undo many of the injustices outlined below.

Children are under increasing pressure to “perform” at school, are increasingly exposed to violence, are subjected to zero-tolerance discipline policies, and have limited or no access to mental health services or creative outlets like art and music. Research has documented the psychological impact this has on students is detrimental. However, hearing personal stories from the parents, teachers, and students who are joining the resistance movement makes it even clearer that children are being subjected to abusive procedures with abusive results.

More and more children are beginning to feel like it is their fault when their teachers are fired and their schools are closed as a result of high-stakes testing. Teachers who have been their friends and mentors lose their jobs because they didn’t do well on their state’s standardized tests. Their schools, which may be the most stable element in a child’s life, are closed because they didn’t fill in the right bubbles.  Many children at schools that have been targeted for closing or privatization, have to finish out the rest of the post-testing school year feeling this way and not knowing what to expect of their new environment and new teachers. Furthermore, some states require the passing of such tests in order to graduate. In addition to reducing a child’s motivation to attend school, high stakes testing provokes anxiety and depression. Children in Chicago have publicly stated as much as they beg local officials to not restructure or close their schools.

Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, and other corporate reformers seem to almost take joy in closing a “failing” school. Of course, their children do not attend those schools, so they don’t have to think about how to safely get them to and from their new school that may be several miles away. The increase of school-related violence as a result of school closures and restructurings disproportionately affects schools in low-income communities. Parents on limited incomes whose children’s schools have been closed or turned into a charter or turnaround school their children cannot attend for a variety of reasons now have to send their children through unfamiliar neighborhoods. In many cases, this causes them to have to cross gang lines in order to attend schools that do not have lotteries, selective enrollment, or policies that intentionally push out low “performing” students.  Along with the impact of losing many of your friends (an important element of a child’s social support system), irresponsibly closing schools is a policy level form of child abuse.

Pushing out low “performing” students or students with special needs and/or behavioral issues is also the result of high-stakes testing.  One of the deregulations charter schools in Chicago and elsewhere have is in that they do not have to follow the district’s student code of conduct. This means students facing expulsion do not have a right to due process as they would if they were attending a traditional public school. 

In Chicago and in other districts, both charter and turnaround schools are increasingly using zero-tolerance discipline policies to encourage students to attend school elsewhere.  The idea is to repeatedly suspend or fine unwanted students for the most minor of infractions until they don’t come back.  The ACLU, NAACP, APA, and NASP have all dubbed such policies the “school-to-prison pipeline” because many high school students simply drop out, which dramatically increases their chances of ending up in prison. In opposition to restorative justice practices, these students are also getting he message that no matter how hard they try, they are not good enough and are being punished accordingly. 

One of the casualties of high-stakes testing is the loss of anything that is not measured on the test.  This includes art, music, and physical education. Access to the arts is essential towards a holistic education and a child’s mental health, particularly if they have been exposed to trauma and/or poverty.  Physical education classes and recess allow students to at least blow off some steam in a controlled environment.  As the curriculum narrows and teachers are being forced to focus more on test preparation than real learning, the joy of education for both students and teachers is rapidly being replaced by rote memorization.  As children are increasingly feeling the pressure to “perform”, access to these resources along with wrap-around support services becomes even more vital.  

The many fallacies of using standardized testing to evaluate teachers and schools have been well documented.  Such an approach assumes all children can be measured by the same metrics regardless of whether or not they have access to fresh food (or food at all), shelter, social supports, positive role models, and/or safe passage to and from school. Those pushing the corporate school reform agenda like to make the ridiculous assertion that poverty doesn’t matter because they know that recognizing that it does, invalidates the results of their high-stakes testing. In some cases, it also assumes that special needs children can be evaluated the same way as the rest of their peers. 

However, those who wish to promote a corporate reform agenda, insist on using standardized testing as a primary mechanism to evaluate teachers and schools, justify their “reforms”, and sell them to the public.  The good news is that there is a resistance movement building. It is a real David vs. Goliath story when you consider disaffected parents, teachers, and students are organizing against interests with virtually unlimited amounts of money, but similar strategies have been successful in the past (i.e. South African parent’s resistance to the racially separatist Bantu Education Act).

Corporations along with their foundations (Waltons, Broads, Gates, etc.) and media outlets are creating a false narrative to sway public opinion.  Even the Huffington Post recently released an article about a student who was forced to sit in her own diarrhea until test time was over. The article did not discuss the ramifications of high-stakes testing and the likelihood this teacher may have faced even greater consequences if they had excused the student, the article didn't miss the opportunity to paint a picture that makes people believe its just bad teaching. Instead, the author included a slideshow of teachers who were busted for criminal activity to drive home a point. The average reader will think bad teacher, not bad policy.
You also have well-funded lobbyist groups like Stand for Children posing as community and parent-based organizations to mislead state lawmakers and the general public about high-stakes testing.  We have to beat them at their own game by using word of mouth and social media to tell the truth and empower parents and students to fight back.

Organizations like United Opt Out National are working with parents across the country to inform them of their right to opt out of standardized testing. The ultimate goal is to mobilize enough parents to opt out that the results of standardized testing are null and void. In the meantime, simply getting hundreds of parents to do this on district and national levels will send a clear message to President Obama that the policies of punishing schools, teachers, and students rather than supporting them have got to go.

You can go to United Opt Out’s website to download factsheets, develop strategies for spreading the word, and learn more about how you can get involved with this resistance movement. You can also sign petitions like the one at dumpduncan.org to get the message to the White House that abuse of high-stakes testing will no longer be tolerated. Considering the social injustices being perpetuated by standardized testing and the support it is receiving from corporate interests, this strategy is perhaps our best bet towards saving public education and stopping the child abuse that is the effect of high-stakes testing.