As principal of Nazareth School, I believe that your children are our focus and not the STAAR tests. Our students and teachers achieve amazing results, but this is not because we focus on tests or legislative requirements. We focus on your children and teaching them what they need to be successful. – Letter from Nazareth […]

Every year we hear about schools telling parents that their kids can’t take advanced classes unless they pass STAAR. This is not really a rule, and usually just an intimidation tactic. But sometimes schools try to follow through. What do you do then? In this video we walk you through the claims schools usually make […]

Sometimes the legislature does something good for Texas students, and sometimes, the TEA doesn’t try to thwart the intention of the legislature. But still, SB 2124 proves once again that a local school bureaucrat can take something intended to be good for students and turn it into a weapon to be used against students. In […]

Facebook has decided to block a direct link to this document for reasons only their algorithm know.  So I am placing it in this article for your use and review.  This confirms again that the TEA does not require schools to put the assessment in front of your kid.  It does not require that they […]

This Youtube video covers some last minute tips aimed at first time opt out parents!

We’ve made the first substantive revision to our step by step guide in many years.  We’ve refocused to urge parents to demand that schools accept their refusal as permitted by the TEA, and noted the end of punitive consequences for not participating.  Your thoughts and comments are always welcomed! https://www.txedrights.net/opting-out-step-by-step/

We’ve been hearing from a lot of parents who are finding their kids have lost electives and been placed in reading or math resource classes.  These classes appear to be AI, focused on STAAR prep and populated by students who did not do well on (or did not participate in) STAAR.  But when the parent […]

Check out our new article on the super simple opt out process for accelerated instruction! https://www.txedrights.net/hb-1416-opt-out-of-ai/

One week preview for our wonderful Patreon supporters! This letter replaces the Do Not Score Letter. The TEA for many years has required the S code to be used with refused assessments. This letter asks them to remove the scores generated by the blank assessment document and replace it with a notification of non-participation. When […]

This is a public post because it is really important.  As Opt Out groups have proliferated the quality control of these groups is increasingly poor.  To the extent that parents get a lot of bad, or more often, woefully incomplete advice.  Then when they fail in their opt out because they have not been properly […]