There are some children in Oak Park District 97 that were denied access to their education at school for two weeks.
Our two daughters, 10 and 12 years old, have never participated in ISAT testing. In previous years, during testing hours, we would simply keep our children out of the school building. We would bring them back to school during the hours when teachers were teaching and children were learning. The former Dist. 97 administration respected our rights, as parents, to make this decision. They understood that Oak Park is a community with not only cultural diversity, but diversity in thought and beliefs.
This year, Dist. 97 administrators informed us and other parents considering “opting out” of ISAT testing that our children would not be allowed to attend school at any time during the two-week “testing window” when the ISATs are administered and the make-up tests are offered. Two weeks out of school. The district claims this is the State’s policy and that they had no choice but to “follow the law.” Dr. Kevin Anderson, in the Wednesday Journal two weeks ago, was quoted as saying that the “district’s hands are tied.”
Imagine our surprise when we received, last week, this e-mail from the legal department of the Illinois State Board of Education:
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Gill,
Your e-mail was forwarded to me for reply. You ask whether it is the state’s intention that students should not be allowed back into school for the remainder of the testing day or during the make-up window. There is no intention on the part of ISBE to have students miss school unless absolutely necessary. Having stated that, I encourage you to reconsider your child/children’s participation in the state assessments.
Renee Vilatte, Assistant Legal Advisor, ISBE
It is clear that the decision to deny access to school during the hours when teachers are teaching and children are learning was a Dist. 97 decision. We find it disheartening that the district would create such a policy. We find it more disheartening that the district would hide behind a supposed state mandate that does not exist.
We do not participate in ISAT testing precisely because we disagree with the amount of time that is taken away from children’s education to satisfy the demands of ISAT testing and preparation. This time, taken away from children’s education, does not benefit the children. How can we ask children to take true “ownership” of their education and work when such emphasis is placed on an examination that offers benefits only to the district bureaucracy?
It is disheartening that Dist. 97 would keep our two children out of school because we object to time taken away from education.
It is especially disheartening that district administrators would tell parents of children with special needs, who contemplated keeping children home during testing hours in order to protect them from developmentally inappropriate practice, that they, too, must keep their children out of school for two weeks if they chose not to participate in ISATs. (This practice was described in a Wednesday Journal article two weeks ago.) Again, this punitive policy was devised by administrators of Dist. 97, not anyone at the legal department of the Illinois State Board of Education.
This dishonesty on the part of Dist. 97 administrators makes it much easier to explain to our children that being forced to miss two weeks of school is a protest, not a punishment.
We ask that the district reconsider its policy for next year.
Jim and Sue Gill
Oak Park