09/24/2024
🚨🚨🚨TEXAS: NAZARETH ISD🚨🚨🚨PLEASE SHARE TO GET THE WORD OUT
SUBJECT: STAAR OPT-OUT
Office of the Governor Greg Abbott
Greg Abbott runs on a platform of “increasing parental rights in education” and vouchers for school choice (we already have school choice). Please see the story of what is being allowed to happen to an elementary student because her parents chose to exercise their rights.
Parent from Nazareth ISD:
Ok so this is absolutely the last thing that I wanted to happen… I’ve refrained from doing this for over a month… but in light of recent events I’m realizing the retaliation by principal Robert O’Connor and superintendent Kara Garlitz will never end and I have no other choice… this is long so please bear with me.
My oldest child should be a 5th grader at Nazareth elementary in Nazareth, Texas. When she was in the 3rd grade in 2022-2023 I decided to opt her out of the standardized assessment in Texas, known as the STAAR assessment. Thousands of Texas parents choose to opt their children out of this assessment and most get very little pushback from their schools. Unfortunately, that has not been the case for us.
In August 2022 I let the school know via letter that my daughter would not be participating in the STAAR assessment during the spring. I wanted to make sure we could work together to put a plan in place with how to proceed. Some schools want you to keep your child home the day of testing but some would rather you send your child to school and have them tab through the test without selecting answers and submitting it blank. After I submitted the letter with my reasons for why we were opting out, the school decided to go back and forth with me for months saying “you’re not allowed to opt your child out of testing”. I knew different so when April 2023 came, my daughter did as we discussed and tabbed through the math and reading assessments and submitted them blank.
Unbeknownst to me, in September of 2022, after I submitted my initial opt out letter, the school was busy trying to figure out a way to implement a plan to keep parents from opting their children out of STAAR. In the superintendents words they needed to “beef up” the retention policy to “combat against parents thinking they can opt out”. They wanted a change, not to be sure kids were ready for promotion, but only to fight against parents.
During the summer of 2023, after my daughter finished 3rd grade, Nazareth ISD officially changed some of their policies. The first policy that was changed was that a student had to have grades of 70+ AND pass STAAR when before the policy said that a student had to have grades of 70+ OR pass staar. With the new policy change, If a student didn’t pass staar they would automatically be retained and they would be subject to a retention meeting.
The other policy change was made about the retention meeting. During the retention meeting if a UNANIMOUS yes was not reached by parents, student and principal to promote the student to the next grade they would be retained. So if one person says the student needs to be retained then that’s it, they will be retained, even if the others disagree.
So my daughter goes on to 4th grade in August 2023. She had the best year of her life thus far. She absolutely loved her teacher and was with a great group of friends that she has had since she was 4 years old in PreK. (In Nazareth there is only 1 class per grade so each grade is a close group of students) She wins multiple UIL awards in spelling, music memory, and art smart. She is 1 of 2 students to meet the AR points reading goal of the year and is toward the top of her class. Receiving mostly As with a few high Bs. She is the happiest I have seen her in years, mostly thanks to her teacher and the addition of a best friend to her class. Her teacher was one of a kind. The kind of teacher you pray you send your children to when they can’t be with you. So March 2024 (weeks before the STAAR assessment) I met with her teacher in her classroom. I told the teacher that my daughter wouldn’t be participating in the STAAR assessment and wanted to come up with a plan. She said “I respect your wishes as a parent, you’re her parent so that’s your choice” she also told me that my daughter passed the STAAR benchmark assessment “with flying colors” and that my daughter was absolutely ready for 5th grade and she wasn’t worried about her at all. She did warn me that my daughter would be subject to a retention meeting. I acknowledged that I knew this but I also knew that because of HB4545 a child could not be retained based on STAAR alone. I knew that my daughter mastered 4th grade and would have no problem being promoted to 5th. So after this conversation my daughter tabbed through math and reading STAAR again and submitted the assessment blank.
July 2023 I received a letter from Nazareth ISD that because my child didn’t pass STAAR assessment she was subject to a retention meeting. Said meeting would be August 8, 2024. I emailed the principal prior to meeting stating that parents get final say on retention and that I refused retention. The principal still insisted that it wasn’t my say and that I had to attend the retention meeting.
My husband and I showed up to the retention meeting on August 8, 2024. I knew the second we walked into that meeting what the principal was going to do. The entire meeting lasted about 3 minutes. The principal asked my daughter’s teacher to read her report card, which she did, which showed she got mostly As with a few high Bs. Her teacher also read through her iready assessments which showed mastery. After the teacher read off my daughter’s achievements the principal stated “because she (my daughter) didn’t take the STAAR assessment it’s my recommendation that she be retained in the 4th grade”. I asked him how he could prove that my daughter didn’t master 4th grade and all he could say was “she didn’t take the STAAR”. He could not give me any reason as to why she didn’t master 4th grade even though the evidence that she had was right in front of him. He had been waiting for that moment to retain her the entire year. To teach her a lesson of what happens if you dare go against him. No matter how well she did in the 4th grade. We left the meeting knowing we were in for a battle.
I called a member of the school board right after the retention meeting to see if going to the school board would even be worth it to get justice for my child. She was not surprised at all by my child being retained, even knowing my daughter was toward the top of her class. She told me the school board supported the principals decision and that the policy was changed the year before to prevent other parents from “following my lead”. (My child is the only student in the school to opt out).
I decided to go up to the school the next morning on August 9 to meet with the superintendent to try to have a calm conversation. I asked her what she expected my child to learn in the 4th grade that she hadn’t already mastered and she just shrugged her shoulders. I asked her how this could possibly be in the best interest of my child and she said she had to do what was in the “best interest of the district” admitting she wasn’t doing what was in the best interest of my child but was choosing to put the district first.
I have both the retention meeting and the meeting the next morning with the superintendent recorded.
My child was the ONLY student retained without parental permission even though there were several others that failed STAAR and/or had subpar report card grades.
My daughter humiliatingly attended 4th grade on 8/18/2024 long enough to be enrolled in Nazareth ISD. She has not attended since then but is still enrolled. She is getting a 5th grade education at home to ensure she doesn’t fall behind. And she is excelling at this 5th grade level making all As even though Nazareth ISD claimed she needed to be held back.
Nazareth ISD wants her to be in the 4th grade. They want to take a year away from her life. They want to set her graduating back by a year. Set her starting college back by a year and ultimately starting her career and life back by a year. They want to make an example out of her (and me) to the entire community to show what happens if you dare to defy them. Even though it is within every right as a parent to opt out of this assessment. Many parents within our community have expressed desire to opt out. But have been bullied every step of the way. Some of their children have testing anxiety. Some just don’t agree with the way the test is given and some just don’t want their children to be good at taking a flawed test. But either way they are bullied into making their child take this STAAR assessment. They see the example that is being made out of me and don’t want the same retaliation happening to their children.
I was told by an administrator during my daughters 3rd grade year that the school was terrified of my daughter opting out of STAAR bc they were scared it would put a “ding in their armor” when it comes to the schools reputation.
This past summer in July 2024 the high school cheerleaders held a service project for the community. They put on a cheer camp for all the K-6 girls in the community. To complete this camp the girls get to perform what they’ve learned at halftime of the homecoming game which was on 9/20. On 9/19 I got an email from the principal stating that my daughter was not allowed to perform at the halftime show even though he couldn’t provide me with any policy to backup his statements.
Because of this clear act of control on the part of the principal I have no choice but to call out all of these acts of discrimination. The principal and superintendent are trying to assert control over my child and her education. My daughter has clearly showed mastery of 4th grade. The STAAR assessment cannot be the only standard of mastery, yet Robert O’Connor and Kara Garlitz have done exactly that with my child.
We moved to Nazareth in 2018 to start our oldest in Pre-K. We have 3 children after her. We wanted our children to be raised in a town where everyone had the same values that we did. Where the “it takes a village” motto still rang true. Where faith, family and community were the core of daily living. It’s a shame how Robert O’Connor and Kara Garlitz can ruin these values for the entire town with a decision to retain a child that has clearly shown she’s ready to be promoted.
The teachers of Nazareth ISD are exceptional and it’s because of them that my children excel in school. It’s because of them that my children love school, and strive to do their best. But Robert O’Connor and Kara Garlitz are completely undermining all the hard work these teachers put in during the year by only putting emphasis on the STAAR assessment as a means to move on to the next grade. That what these teachers do in the classroom is useless if the student doesn’t do well on STAAR.
We have done the “grievance process” that Kara Garlitz so desperately wanted us to start. Which of course she did because it takes MONTHS to get through this process. We started at level 2 taking it to Kara Garlitz which she obviously denied. Now it goes on to the school board October 2, 2024 which I’m sure it will be denied as well… then we will finally get to take it to the commissioner of education which is where I’m told we will most likely get traction but it’s ridiculous it has to be taken this far and take this long to get something done when a child’s education is at risk.
No matter what your thoughts are on STAAR I think everyone can agree that what is being done to my daughter is wrong. She has shown mastery of 4th grade yet is still being retaliated against by power hungry administrators.
And now with news coming out yesterday (9/23/2024) about Nazareth receiving the honor of being a “Blue Ribbon School”, now you know the length the principal and superintendent are willing to go to to ensure they get these accolades. By punishing students that they think could jeopardize them not being the best of the best. Putting awards and honors above the best interest of its students.
I’m asking for everyone to share this story far and wide. And please pray for our situation. That justice will be done for our daughter. That she can go back to her (appropriate) class full of her lifelong friends and continue getting the education she has a God given right to receive. Please pray for my daughter as she is trying to have patience but being 11 and having your world turned upside down by adults you thought you could trust isn’t easy.
We have a lawyer and are in for a long legal battle if this isn’t resolved so please pray for us to have the courage and determination to continue with this for the foreseeable future. It’s going to be a long road but we are determined to not let this happen to another child. We’re determined to make sure some sort of good can come from this.
