Aimee Guidera of the Gates-funded Data Quality Campaign compared parents who opt their children out of testing to those refusing vaccination

..... risking other children irreparable harm?... One parent tweeted that opting out of vaccines can kill kids; opting out of tests can kill tests.... Reported by Leonie Haimson

Gates Foundation Explores new way to deliver common core tests

How desparate are the ed deformers getting?

Responses on change the stakes listserve:
Murry: Is it cupidity or stupidity?

Jeff:  Absolutely astonishing.  And of course, indirectly supporting our main point, that educators should be in charge of education. If "policymakers" need these kinds of data to direct the education of children, then they are not qualified to direct the education of children. They should get out of the way and let parents and teachers take over, because we actually know what we're doing.

Edith: Right on, Jeff! Opting out is more like refusing to take your child's temperature when you don't know what the thermometer looks like, how it's calibrated, and if the case protects your child from the mercury inside it. But a parent has the instinct to know if

his or her child is well or not.

Tory: It's an egregious and irresponsible analogy; vaccines are proven to save lives directly and create herd immunity indirectly. We know exactly why what mechanism each one works and they take DECADES of research, from bench to bedside.  Truly awful statement.

Jeff: I honestly can't believe the level of irrationality currently on display by people who obviously have never spent any time with children but nevertheless feel compelled to try to control everything that happens with them in schools.  Parents and teachers united will restore sanity. 

 Part of the quote is here:

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2013/11/19/Report-reveals-usage-of-student-data-tracking/stories/201311190127

Politico Pro quote is here, behind the paywall:

Aimee Rogstad Guidera, executive director of the Data Quality Campaign, said that when parents refuse to let their kids take state-mandated exams, “it is damaging to that individual child” because the teacher relies on achievement data to customize lesson plans. The collective good also suffers, she said, because when families boycott the tests, student performance data is incomplete — which makes it tough for policymakers to evaluate instructional approaches and pick the most effective one.

“The analogy is tied to the vaccine one: If you choose not to vaccinate your kid, you’re not only … possibly hurting your own kid, but in addition you may be … [putting] at risk the whole system,” she said. “I think there are grave analogies between those two situations.”