EVANSVILLE - From a legal perspective, Indiana State Teachers Association Vice President Keith Gambill said it was important to let members know that any questions from parents asking about opting out of ISTEP testing should be referred to local school building principals or school district administrators.
United Opt Out is a national movement to end corporate education reform, according to the nonprofit organization's website. It offers guidelines for each state on how parents can opt out their child from ISTEP testing. The United Opt Out website provides letter templates that parents can use as guidance in submitting to their child's school principal.
There's also a Facebook page titled Opt Out Indiana. It is self-described as a group of Hoosier parents and supporters who believe high stakes testing is destructive to many entities, including children, educators and communities.
In two separate emails obtained by the Courier & Press, Evansville Teachers Association President Mark Lichtenberg and Warrick County Teachers Association President Lynnette Corn advised their members not to give any information or advice to inquiring parents on the ISTEP opt out option, or they could be fired.
Part of Lichtenberg's email, dated Feb. 20, stated "We are aware that, in light of the controversy surrounding ISTEP this year, there may be an increased number of parents who are exploring an ‘opt out' option for their child. While we may share many of the concerns regarding ISTEP, if you, or any member, is approached by a parent with questions regarding ‘opting out,' ETA strongly advises you to NOT PROVIDE ANY ADVICE one way or the other. Doing so could be construed as a violation of policies and regulations and could put your employment in jeopardy."
Corn's email, dated Feb. 18, stated that she received a statement from ISTA President Teresa Meredith. Part of the email read "Please do not (be) opining, suggesting, or encouraging parents to opt-out of the state test. There could be serious consequence, including firing."
Corn said her group is also telling teachers to refer any questions to administrators.
Lichtenberg didn't return phone or email messages on Tuesday, but Gamblin said the ISTA guidance isn't different from what would be given to members for other matters concerning school policy.
It shouldn't be a rude response from teachers, Gamblin said, but since every school district's policies may vary slightly, teachers should direct those parent questions to the "right person that hopefully will have answers for them."
"So that no teacher gets caught in a place where they unfortunately may have said something that was against school policy that they didn't recognize was there," Gamblin said. "From our legal perspective, the cleanest way is to politely refer, ‘That's a terrific question about how to opt out your child; our school principal or this contact person at EVSC will be happy to help you with the answers.'"
While Indiana does not have an assessment opt-out procedure or law, according to Indiana Department of Education spokesman Daniel Altman there are consequences to opting your child out of ISTEP testing. Those include, Altman said, federal funding being at jeopardy if there isn't 95 percent participation across the state; individual schools also need 95 percent participation, otherwise their A-F school accountability grade will drop a full letter grade.
"I'm sure you can imagine at some of the smaller schools, one or two students can make a very big difference on that. ... It's the first time we're testing on college and career readiness and we believe that parents would want to know how their students are doing and how their students are performing," Altman said. "And we think that you can get a lot of good information from the ISTEP. So we think it's very important that students take it."
The ISTEP testing window opens Wednesday and runs through March 13. Individual school officials have the authority to decide when testing will start at their school, within that time frame. During this month, Gov. Mike Pence and Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz have worked to shorten the new exam from about 12 hours to eight or nine hours, depending on grade level.
Gambill believes opt out is being discussed more in Indiana this year because of changes that have occurred with new state standards and a new assessment.
"It was kind of a moot point in the past in Indiana. ... And I don't even know how widespread it is," he said. "I really don't know parent sentiment."