OLA Parents,
A friendly reminder that if you would like to opt your student(s) out of state testing, you can still do this. OLA will be extending the deadline for opting out until next Thursday, April 5, 2018. If you would like to still opt out, please return the form that was emailed with the re-enrollment paperwork, or email a scanned, signed opt-out form (PDF below).For your information, as an educational director, legally I cannot persuade families to opt in or opt out, but I can communicate that opting out (or in) will not harm your child or the school in any way. You can feel confident in choosing whichever choice you prefer.
The only result of a high opt-out rate is that I may have to appeal our school performance framework rating next year. Last year, over 75% (approximately) of our OLA families opted out of state testing. The result of this low number of test takers was that we had so few students from which to draw data, I appealed our state rating (originally “Turnaround”) to be changed to not having enough data to provide a valid rating. The appeal was successful (which resulted in defaulting to our most recent valid rating, “Improvement”-- the highest rating that any online schools in the state received.)
My apologies for releasing the testing logistics information (PDF below & linked here) this late in March. In the future, this information will be available much earlier in the year. As a new director working with a counselor (our assessment coordinator) who is new to our district, OLA has experienced a "learning curve" regarding the collaboration with Branson Online Schools, and setting up the logistics of testing hundreds of students across the state. Please note that more specific information (grade levels, content areas, locations, and times) will be disseminated next week.
We thank OLA families very much for your patience, understanding, and knowing that in the future this process will be more efficient, and information will be available much earlier in the school year.