Now that you know, what can you do?
Tell someone!
For years there have been Tupperware and Avon parties in our homes…parties for home decorating and even parties for “unmentionables”! (Not that I would know!) We’ve been inviting our friends into our homes for all sorts of reasons, and that’s what you can still do to help educate other parents!
Open your home up for a small gathering of parents that you think might be interested in knowing what’s happening with their children’s education. It could start with something as informal as a Facebook posting…
“I’m opening up my house for a meeting for any local parents interested in learning more about the state of their child's education, and the excessive use of standardized assessments in school. 7:00, my house, junk food and information provided.”
The smaller the gathering, the more information you can share. The more info you share, the greater chance of getting all of their questions answered and misinformation cleared up…And make no mistake, they will have questions!
Keep it simple…it’s very easy to overwhelm with the amount of information that’s out there (Think back to when you were just learning all of this information)!
1. A brief introduction as to who you are, what your story is, why you’re involved and how you became involved in this movement. They’re going to want to know who you are to take this stand.
2. Take a very, VERY brief amount of time to explain Race To The Top, Common Core Learning Standards, and how this affects our kids with new educational requirements, excessive testing, and the problems with excessive testing (use hand out found in “TOOLS”)
**Again, BRIEF…this is information that parents need to know, but they probably don’t realize it yet. Eventually, it will all come together and they will see the relationship, but right now it’s overwhelming and they have questions.
3. The option of “Refusing” (not using the Opt-Out language) - Even if the spring ELA and Math assessments are over for the year, there are still tests that our children are being used for to determine our teachers’ evaluations.
How did you go about Refusing? Was it a letter to the school earlier in the year or later? How was it handled initially? What was the end result? What works, what is accurate, and what’s not?
4. Questions and answers from your guests. Let them share. It’s a personal and emotional hot topic when discussing what’s best for our kids!
5. Have hand-outs available for additional information that may not get covered in the course of the evening. These are what I use, most are located within the TOOLS section at
a. Why Excessive Testing is Problematic (Tool #2)
b. Refusal Letter (Tool #1)
c. How Can I Help? (Tool #11)
d. Links and Web sources – Put a simple Word document together showing your local/regional/state “Opt-Out” Facebook groups, as well as the link for
e. FAQ’s - Questions and answers most often asked (print this from the “FAQ’S” tab at the top of )
That’s it! You don’t have to have ALL of the answers, but you can help to get parents thinking! You are putting the information into their hands with resources to get them to look at this further, and dig a little deeper.
Parents will always be our children’s BEST advocates!