School districts in Southwest Washington will shortly begin to administer the new state-mandated high-stakes testing called the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. This test is mandated as part of Common Core. The U.S. Department of Education (which has no legal say about education at the state level) is claiming they will withdraw money if at least 95 percent of students don’t take the test.
The SBAC is an entirely new test that can’t be used to compare to any past test. It is unproven. It’s complicated and not indicative of children’s skills. This entire process starts in late March and goes through May, taking away a large part of the school year.
We encourage every parent to learn more about the SBAC and then opt out of the testing. Forms for all school districts can be found at www.swweducation.org/?page_id=679
