Finally, relief for opt-out parents.

The “Opt-Out” movement may have subsided in Louisiana, but only because of the severity of the threats and consequences being made by superintendents and principals across the state. But judging by the flood of emails, text messages, and FaceBook messages I continue to get, everyday, the concern and contempt for state assessments has not died.

It is a sad situation. When Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), they were cognizant of the failures of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). They tried to address some of the things in NCLB that were problematic, and one of those was the push back against state mandated testing. There was a concerted effort to first acknowledge that a parent has the right to choose whether, or not, their child will participate in assessments, and then, they provided a buffer so that schools wouldn’t be penalized as much. ESSA mandates that school districts must make the assessment available and accessible to ALL of their students who are eligible to take the assessment. There is no penalty for the first 5% who don’t take the test, but if fewer than 95% take the test, the school/district has to explain why and develop a plan to increase participation. In Louisiana, in spite of protests from the governor’s office, school boards, superintendents, principals and teacher organizations, BESE approved John White’s ESSA plan which begins penalizing schools with the very first student who doesn’t take the test.

You may remember that last year Rep. Vincent Pierre submitted a bill, at my request, that would remedy this problem. The bill was met with heavy opposition, so Pierre and I agreed to defer the bill in lieu of a resolution. Two weeks later, Pierre submitted a resolution urging BESE to adopt a more agreeable policy. Again, rumblings of opposition prompted us to pull the resolution.

After several conversations, Sen. Ronnie Johns agreed that this was an issue that needed to be addressed, and he felt that the senate, as a whole, would agree. He put the senate staff to work on a resolution using the language of the original resolution as a guide.

On Monday, April 23rd, Senate Resolution 144 was read into the senate journals, and on Tuesday, it was referred to the education committee. On Thursday, April 26th, Sen. Johns requested that the senate rules be suspended, and the resolution be recalled from committee to be considered on the senate floor. His request was approved, and the resolution passed without objection.

In a nutshell, the Louisiana Senate has urged BESE to reconsider its current testing policy and develop a policy that is more conducive to positive relationships, using the 5% leeway as part of an “opt-out” policy. You can read the resolution here—> Senate Resolution 144

Please take a moment to thank Senator Ronnie Johns on his FaceBook  page, below.

https://www.facebook.com/senatorronniejohns/