Continuing on the theme of encouraging parents to opt their children out of taking the Smarter Balanced high stakes assessment tests, Glassner read the letter of a courageous New Hampshire public school teacher, Diane Sekula, who along with her husband has made the decision that her son would not take the tests. Comments from the letter state, “…assessment questions and/or resulting data can be flawed, are likely based on flawed Common Core questions which were designed by for-profit entities or non-profit entities financed with money from venture philanthropists or influenced by those who knowingly entertain conflicts of interest which have been known to create situations of unethical business practices that may not have the interests of my child, his teachers, or administrators at heart…that high stakes testing creates an atmosphere where teaching to the test becomes of the utmost importance, which has the tendency to have a decrease on the emphasis of creativity, the arts, and instilling a love of learning, …my husband and I refuse our son, ____, to participate in any test…described above…”
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