hammond on opt out

201 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80203-1799 P 303.866.6600 F 303.830.0793 Robert K. Hammond, Commissioner of Education | Keith Owen Ph.D., Deputy Commissioner | www.cde.state.co.us February 19, 2015 Dear Superintendents and BOCES Directors, As many of you know, at the January meeting of the State Board of Education, the board passed a motion to direct me to grant waivers to districts that request not to administer the performance-based portion of the upcoming Colorado Measures of Academic Success tests in English language arts and math. Based upon that action, I requested a formal opinion from the Attorney General’s Office to determine the legality of the directive. The formal opinion was issued on February 4, 2015, and stated that the board did not have the authority to direct me to grant waivers to the performance-based portion of the English language arts and math assessments. The formal opinion clarified additional related legal questions and is attached for your reference. As a result of the State Board of Education’s decision in January, CDE has received 20 waiver requests from various districts. At the February 18, 2015 meeting of the State Board of Education, the board had an opportunity to discuss the formal opinion with representatives from the Attorney General’s Office. The board was also presented with the requests received to date for waivers of the performance-based portion of the ELA and math assessments. The board voted to allow continued submissions of waivers by districts and to table any decision on those waivers until the next special or regular meeting of the board. Since the board did not grant waivers from the performance-based component of PARCC, districts should continue preparations for the administration of the upcoming assessments. In addition, the board adopted a motion to “not hold districts liable for the decisions of parents when these parents decide not to allow their children to take PARCC.” The effect of this motion is that districts will not be penalized by a lowering of their accreditation rating should their student participation rates fall below 95% on the PARCC assessments due to parental refusal of their students to take the PARCC assessments. Districts still need to engage in good faith efforts to test all students in accordance with state and federal law and maintain documentation of parent refusals. The department will seek an amendment to Colorado’s current ESEA waiver to accommodate the board’s motion. The amendment is subject to review and approval of the U.S. Department of Education. The department will also include this request in our waiver renewal application, subject to board adoption in March. As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions you might have. Sincerely, Robert K. Hammond Commissioner of Education 201 East Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80203-1799

Upload: writepeg

Post on 21-Nov-2015

125 views

Category:

Documents

4 download

Report

Download

Embed Size (px):

TRANSCRIPT

201 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80203-1799 P 303.866.6600 F 303.830.0793 Robert K. Hammond, Commissioner of Education | Keith Owen Ph.D., Deputy Commissioner | www.cde.state.co.us

February 19, 2015 Dear Superintendents and BOCES Directors, As many of you know, at the January meeting of the State Board of Education, the board passed a motion to direct me to grant waivers to districts that request not to administer the performance-based portion of the upcoming Colorado Measures of Academic Success tests in English language arts and math. Based upon that action, I requested a formal opinion from the Attorney Generals Office to determine the legality of the directive. The formal opinion was issued on February 4, 2015, and stated that the board did not have the authority to direct me to grant waivers to the performance-based portion of the English language arts and math assessments. The formal opinion clarified additional related legal questions and is attached for your reference. As a result of the State Board of Educations decision in January, CDE has received 20 waiver requests from various districts. At the February 18, 2015 meeting of the State Board of Education, the board had an opportunity to discuss the formal opinion with representatives from the Attorney Generals Office. The board was also presented with the requests received to date for waivers of the performance-based portion of the ELA and math assessments. The board voted to allow continued submissions of waivers by districts and to table any decision on those waivers until the next special or regular meeting of the board. Since the board did not grant waivers from the performance-based component of PARCC, districts should continue preparations for the administration of the upcoming assessments. In addition, the board adopted a motion to not hold districts liable for the decisions of parents when these parents decide not to allow their children to take PARCC. The effect of this motion is that districts will not be penalized by a lowering of their accreditation rating should their student participation rates fall below 95% on the PARCC assessments due to parental refusal of their students to take the PARCC assessments. Districts still need to engage in good faith efforts to test all students in accordance with state and federal law and maintain documentation of parent refusals. The department will seek an amendment to Colorados current ESEA waiver to accommodate the boards motion. The amendment is subject to review and approval of the U.S. Department of Education. The department will also include this request in our waiver renewal application, subject to board adoption in March. As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions you might have. Sincerely, Robert K. Hammond Commissioner of Education

201 East Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80203-1799