Governor Herbert signed SB122 into law today. All Utah parents can now opt their children out of SAGE tests from any school without repercussion to your child, the teacher, or the school. De-stress your children and tell them to tell their friends they got opted out of the SAGE tests. Trust me, their friends will think it’s amazing and word will spread like wildfire.
The State Board of Education will be discussing the topic of what to do now at their board meeting this Friday. So if your child attends school in Nebo, Harmony, My Tech High, etc…, you can proceed opting them out of the SAGE tests immediately (although, because of the contract some of you signed that your children would take the SAGE test or pay the school back, you may have to take the test or pay the fee this year. Beg the school to change their policy based on the new law, if not immediately, at least for next year.).
Why would you want to opt out? Watch the video at this post to learn why.
Here are the relevant lines from SB 122.
http://le.utah.gov/~2014/bills/static/SB0122.html
“(9) (a) Upon the written request of a student’s parent or guardian, an LEA shall excuse the student from taking a test that is administered statewide or the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
(b) The State Board of Education shall ensure through board rule that neither an LEA nor its employees are negatively impacted through school grading or employee evaluation due to a student not taking a test pursuant to Subsection (9)(a).”
We will come out with a new form but if you just copy/paste this onto a sheet of paper, it will suffice for now.
I am opting my child, ____________, out of all computer adaptive tests including practice tests, under Utah state law, SB 122, signed by Governor Herbert on April 2, 2014 which states:
“(9) (a) Upon the written request of a student’s parent or guardian, an LEA shall excuse the student from taking a test that is administered statewide or the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
(b) The State Board of Education shall ensure through board rule that neither an LEA nor its employees are negatively impacted through school grading or employee evaluation due to a student not taking a test pursuant to Subsection (9)(a).”
Oak, do you know if the new law changes anything about labeling kids nonproficient or not? The LEA and teachers aren’t penalized, but are the kids labeled nonproficient?
By the way, we all owe you a tremendous thank you for all you did to awaken people sufficiently to get this law passed.
Walt, thank you for making that point. Oak has worked very hard to keep us abreast of this insulting and destructive law, and he certainly deserves our thanks! Thank you Oak!
I don’t know specifics about that aspect. The law specifically states that teachers and schools won’t be penalized.
You should really thank Aaron Osmond who ran the bill and listened to parents.
aosmond@le.utah.gov
Oak thank you for all you have done.. I am jumping for joy today!!
Thanks for all of us involved. It’s not just me.
Thanks! I sent my appreciation email to Aaron Osmond!
But, truly, we are grateful for all you are doing also, Oak!
I heard that this law doesn’t take effect until summer, which would be after this year’s testing. Is this true?
I’d also like to say I’m grateful for all the hard work you’ve done.
Helen, I believe it starts immediately. I received a letter from Nebo district saying that my kids could now opt out. I am however confused about the repercussions associated with opting out, because the verbiage on SB122 says there can be none, but the letter from the district states otherwise. A big thank you to Oak for hearing the concerns of us parents and helping to push this through! My kids were telling people they were opting out before they could be opted out because I would just pick them up during testing. They are thrilled about this-thank you.
Where could I see a copy of the Nebo district letter?