New Hampshire Schools are on the verge of administering the Smarter Balanced Assessment (Common Core Assessment) beginning in March. Here is a list of questions parents may want to take directly to their School Board first.
Many parents are REFUSING to allow their children to take the Common Core assessments for many reasons. However because this is a psychological evaluation on your children, it’s important for parents to fully understand what this data will be used for, where it goes, and why this information is being sent to the Federal Government.
Questions for the School board:
1) Why did the NH DOE sign an MOU w/the Smarter Balanced Consortium BEFORE the assessment was even developed?
2) What NH teachers were involved with vetting the Smarter Balanced Assessment BEFORE committing to this consortium?
3) When did the NH DOE or BOE offer PUBLIC hearings on the Smarter Balanced Assessment?
4) Why are they administering an assessment that has NOT been validated by an independent organization when the law clearly says the assessment MUST be valid (RSA 193-C III (b) )?
5) The law also says the assessment must be OBJECTIVE (RSA 193-C II)and we know the assessment is NOT objective.
6) How will schools/Students be RANKED on a psychometric assessment? Since that’s not objective?
7) How do they rank a child as proficient, not proficient based on a psychometric assessment?
8) Commissioner Barry admitted at a public meeting a few weeks ago that NO superintendent wants to use the Smarter Balanced Assessment except for ONE, in NH. Why are they administering an assessment almost EVERY superintendent does NOT want to use?
9) The Smarter Balanced Assessment is a psychological evaluation of students. Will parents be fully informed of this and will the school require their written permission ??
ASK the SCHOOL BOARD to FULLY INFORM parents that their children will undergo a psychological assessment. The CODE OF ETHICS that guide LICENSED Psychologists says that the idividual must be FULLY INFORMED when they are subjected to an assessment.
10) What is the PLAN by School administrators to fully inform parents that their children will be subjected to a psychological evaluation via the Smarter Balanced Assessment?
Advisory from the NH Dept of Ed on Parent REFUSALS
Additional Sources:
Nashua School District Teachers Disapprove of Smarter Balanced Assessments (Seems the test was designed more as a psychological or sociological experiment, not as a measure of academic learning. Who created this test, anyway? It couldn’t have been by professional educators.)
A Mental Health Professional’s Perspective on the Common Core
