[Assessment_Advisory_Committee] Assessment Advisory: Opt-Out Form Feedback

[CARTER Holly]

Hi All,

As communicated in a numbered memo released on September 10th, ODE will be publishing a combined Opt-Out form and 30-day notice for districts to access on November 9th. To date, ODE has shared drafts of the form with parent focus groups and partners such as  OEA, the Chief Education Office, OSBA, Stand for Children, and the Chalkboard Project. Based on feedback from these groups, ODE has made several revisions in order to address concerns about the language, accessibility, format, and content. These changes include, but are not limited to:

*         Removing redundant or ineffective phrases, like college- and career-readiness

*         Simplifying page 1 text

*         Providing additional information about state tests

*         Encouraging parents to talk to their child's teachers and school principals

*         Providing links to resources and acknowledging House Bill 2655

*         Moving away from overselling the results of Smarter Balanced

*         Broadening the language for opting out to include Smarter Balanced ELA and math tests and the extended assessments

*         Remove and soften the language on page 2 about when parents/adult students should return the form

*         Add the qualifier "may" to the bolded statement above the parent signature

Before finalizing the form for publication, we wanted one last opportunity to gather feedback. We value your input, and request that you please send any feedback to Meg Koch (meg.koch at state.or.us<mailto:meg.koch at state.or.us>) no later than end of day next Wednesday, November 4. Once finalized, we will disseminate the form to schools and districts November 9 as planned. In our message to schools, we will include additional resources to assist them in communicating with parents and students.

Thank you,

Holly Carter
Interim Director of Assessment

Office of Learning | Inst., Stand., Asmt, &Acc. Unit | Oregon Department of Education
Phone: 503.947.5739 | Fax: 503.378.5156 | *holly.carter at state.or.us
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/assessment_advisory_committee/attachments/20151030/f2ba1489/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Opt-Out 10.30.15 - 4.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 84909 bytes
Desc: Opt-Out 10.30.15 - 4.docx
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/assessment_advisory_committee/attachments/20151030/f2ba1489/attachment.docx>