ICE PAC

Middle School Parents, state tests are coming up:

• ELA exam is 4/8-4/9
• Math exam is 5/1-5/2

Federal law mandates that states give annual tests, but it also gives parents the right to refuse them on behalf of their children. Parents from ICE PAC have traditionally distributed and collected opt out letters and answered questions about opt out at parent teacher conferences--and we will be at next week's rescheduled Wednesday evening conference.

However, with the cancellation and re-scheduling of conferences this year, we want to point out that you can use our online opt out/test refusal form instead. Please do so as soon as possible so the school can plan accordingly for testing days. Here are the links in English and Spanish. 

Some ICE-specific testing/opt out questions we've been asked (and answers):

How does ICE use state test scores? At ICE, scores are not used to inform instruction, nor do they count in student evaluation. 

Does ICE do test prep? No. There is no explicit test prep in the ICE curriculum.

With 80% or more students refusing the tests, what do testing days look like? Students who are taking the tests are called from their classrooms to testing rooms. Non-testing students remain in their classrooms engaged in school activities like reading or writing. Teachers do not introduce new concepts so that testing students don't miss out.

For more about test refusal in general (why, statistics, impacts on admissions, etc), visit here.