Tabbing Through

So it’s opt out time for STAAR.  We’ve already told you that the school is not going to “agree” that you can opt out.  Now that doesn’t mean you can’t opt out.  In fact, some schools play the game of pretending that refusing to participate (your option) is not opting out.  It is.  They don’t get to define words for us.

So what do we know?

We know that the TEA has told schools that they can accept parental refusals and submit a blank assessment without ever putting it in front of the student.  And thankfully, we are seeing more districts than ever working with parents and offering this option.

We know that if the district doesn’t offer that option, the student can refuse in person and either be sent on to class (good job school!) or sit and not engage the assessment (punitive, but as long as they don’t coerce you, it’s OK).

But many parents (and kids) decide that sitting for three or more hours to refuse the assessment is a silly game, and that the best way to successfully opt out is to submit a blank assessment in the testing room.  This is what you will see called “Tabbing Through”.  In this process, the student advances to the next question without answering, dismisses all warnings about missing answers, gets to the end and submits the assessment (without asking for the proctor to review it).  But this raises the question: how do we teach our kids to do this?

Thanks to a wonderful TTAAS Facebook member, we present the video tutorial “Tabbing Through”  Enjoy the video and let’s get out there and opt out. Because it is OUR option, not the school’s.