A legislative hearing exploded yesterday when Delaware lawmakers and parents found themselves in a shouting match over whether to allow students to opt-out of the statewide test.
It’s called the Smarter Balanced Assessment which students took for the first time this year.
The legislation before the lawmakers would allow students to opt out of taking the test.
A number of angry parents said they would keep their children from taking the test with one saying he didn’t care what the law said.
Parents and teachers say the test takes valuable class time and puts the students under a lot of stress without providing useful information.
But Governor Jack Markell and the state Department of Education say that allowing students to opt-out would damage the results of the test in assessing the overall academic performance in the state.
