The Long Beach Classroom Teachers Association strongly condemns sit and stare policies. Policies which are aimed at students whose parents have elected to refuse to have their children take state standardized tests (aka opt-out). It is spiteful and counter-productive for any school district to require an administrator or teacher to direct a child to sit and stare at a blank desk while other students are taking exams because of a choice made by a parent.
Punishing or embarrassing children because their parents exercised their legitimate right to “refuse” should be banned. The New York State Education Department has not yet taken a position on sit and stare leaving it up a local Board of Education to adopt a policy. We hope that the Long Beach Board of Education will adopt clear guidelines that protect children and parents against abusive testing policies. The “opt out” movement is growing and now is the time to clarify what a parent must do in order to opt-out or refuse and how such students will be treated during the time the test is administered.
Update: At the February 11, 2014 Board of Education meeting Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Graham announced that no student will be required to sit and stare during the upcoming State Assessments. However the Board of Education has not indicated whether it will adopt such a policy or whether it will issue clear guidelines to parents on how to refuse.
