By:  Diane Benjamin

Many states have already opted out of the PARCC test.  Illinois has not, but that doesn’t mean your child needs to be subjected to it.  Tell your child’s school that your kids will not be taking the test.

I’ve linked to 2 stories below.  Educate yourself, then decide if PARCC is right for your child.

Why not just comply and take the test? For one, the tests are illegal. Judge Green of the state of Missouri ruled in late February that the SBAC test is unconstitutional and that the state has to exit the illegal consortium. There is also no evidence of validation supporting the tests use, and the test administrators take too long to return results to be of any use to the teachers. The designers of these high stakes test are wrong in trying to convince us that a single test should determine the success of a child’s school year, the effectiveness of a teacher, and whether a school should be classified as a failure. These shoddy tests are part of a system that aids and abets a centralized system that is contrary to the Constitutional concept of local control. The tests contribute to diluting traditional math, diluting classical literature, and ultimately destroy the Western canon. The tests also track personal information including behavior indicators while creating a government dossier of our children to which parents will have no access and will be stored forever. This nonacademic information is part of a long-term plan by the federal government to create a workforce database known as P20. You can check for yourself. Finally, the scores are arbitrarily cut high to create the false impression of failing children and failing schools with the goal of eliminating public schools. The test is planned intentionally, for example, to fail 95% of sixth grade English Language Learners on English.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/03/common_core_state_tests_i_refuse.html#ixzz3TKBbhEuM
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An effective way to resist standardized testing is to simply not participate in it; refusing state tests is a common, legal strategy used all over the nation. Students and parents around the country are becoming more and more fed up with the excessive testing in our public schools, causing a massive opt-out/refusal movement.

More reliable and effective forms of alternative, performance-based assessment are available. Proponents claim that the PARCC allows to compare students around the nation; however, fourteen out of twenty-five states have already dropped the PARCC in the past year.

By uniting in opposition locally, we can add our voice to a nation full of teachers boycotting tests, parents opting their kids out, and students walking out of tests. We are in the midst of a wave of resistance to standardized testing in order to reclaim our public schools. Join the movement. Refuse the PARCC.

Source:  http://dianeravitch.net/2015/02/28/students-in-bloomington-and-normal-illinois-join-to-oppose-parcc-tests/

This link includes information on HOW to opt out.