For Immediate Release Oct 29, 2013

Contact: Eric Wagner (510) 465-6444, ext 318 Email: ewagner@edtrustwest.org

National and State Organizations Respond to Elimination of Public Transparency on Student Academic Performance by CA Leaders
Support Obama Administrations Efforts to Protect the Rights of Students, Parents and Educators

OAKLAND, CA (Oct 29, 2013) As national and state organizations representing parents, teachers, students and communities, we believe that Californias leaders are violating the rights of parents and educators to receive critical information on the academic progress of more than four million students. Governor Browns signing of Assembly Bill 484 into law represents a dramatic step backward in public transparency for student academic results. It is also a clear violation of important federal protections for our most vulnerable student populations, including our states approximately 1.3 million English Learners and 650,000 students with disabilities. We believe that the Obama administrations response to AB 484 is an important first step in protecting the rights of students and parents. As a result of AB 484, parents, students and educators will not receive any objective information on their childrens grade-level performance in English Language Arts and Mathematics for an indeterminate length of time. Parents and teachers of English Learners and students with disabilities will lose vital information necessary to assess English proficiency and progress in the general education curriculum. Teachers will lose critical information on student academic progress in transition grades such as third grade. Furthermore, AB 484 jeopardizes the ability of parents to ensure that their children have access to the fundamental right of a basic education and equitable opportunity to learn guaranteed by the California Constitution. It is especially unfortunate that state leaders are portraying their decision to suspend public transparency on student outcomes as way to transition to the Common Core State Standards and assessments. While their decision to expand the use of the new Common Core aligned Smarter Balanced assessments into all schools has merit, we are deeply concerned by their failure to fund the full cost of these assessments or provide any results to educators and parents. In fact, under the AB 484 plan, hundreds of thousands of tests will never be scored. Students should not spend hours of their time taking tests for no reason. Educators should get the results of any assessment that their students take. Parents should know how their children performed on tests paid for with their tax dollars. Districts and schools should know how well they are performing in implementing the Common Core State Standards and assessments. And the public has a right to know how well their schools and districts performed in implementing a new testing system funded by public dollars. 1 of 3

To truly facilitate a transition to the Common Core, state leaders should engage in a transparent and open process that continues to provide vital information on student academic performance to parents, educators and communities. We call on California state leaders to fund the full costs of providing both the English and Math Smarter Balanced assessments for school districts, ensure the necessary supports and accommodations for students and fund the analysis required to offer the results of these tests to parents, teachers, and education leaders. For those districts that cannot provide the Smarter Balanced assessments because of a lack of technical capacity, we call on the state to fund the STAR assessment or a Common Core aligned summative assessment selected by the school district. Over the last several months, many of us have advocated for state leaders, including Governor Brown, to make these crucial investments. Unfortunately, state leaders have failed to act and have given no indication that they will reconsider their current stance. Given the stakes for Californias most vulnerable student populations, we strongly support Secretary Duncan and President Obamas efforts to protect the rights of students and to provide parents and educators with objective, annual information on student academic progress, including information on the academic achievement of student subgroups. When a state such as California blatantly violates the rights of children and parents, the federal government should intervene and send a strong signal that the states actions are unacceptable and must be reversed. Ben Austin Executive Director, Parent Revolution Maureen Graves Co-Chair, California Association for Parent-Child Advocacy Kati Haycock President, The Education Trust John Lee Executive Director, TeachPlus-LA Bill Lucia President & CEO, EdVoice Ama Nyamekye Executive Director, Educators4Excellence Los Angeles Arun Ramanathan Executive Director, The Education TrustWest James H. Wendorf 2 of 3

Executive Director, National Center for Learning Disabilities Joe Williams Executive Director, Democrats for Education Reform ###

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