I was pretty shocked to read this news:
Three students were sent to an in-school suspension classroom after refusing to take a military aptitude test at Cedar Ridge High School on Tuesday.
Principal Gary Thornburg said the students were not being disciplined, rather the in-school suspension teacher was the staff person available to supervise them.
More than 300 juniors spent two hours Tuesday and again Wednesday taking the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.
Thornburg said the test, which the U.S. military calls the ASVAB, is traditionally administered to juniors at his school. The military provides the tests, proctors and grading without charge. In exchange, the scores are sent to military branch recruiters and the school.
- newsobserver.com: 3 decline to take military test, 2/14/08
It turns out people are resisting these tests all around the nation:
... the US Army Recruiting Command's School Recruiting Program Handbook says the primary purpose of the ASVAB is to provide military recruiters "with a source of leads of high school juniors and seniors qualified through the ASVAB for enlistment into the Active Army and Army Reserve." See page 6: http://www.usarec.army.mil/im/formpub/REC_PUBS/p350_13.pdf
Unless a school district takes measures to protect student privacy, the data from the ASVAB is automatically forwarded to military recruiting services. This practice runs counter to the opt-out provision of Section 9528 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and may violate state law regarding student privacy.
Kudos to those students for resisting the military's insiduous creep into America's classrooms. Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools policy is to not administer this test to students unless they sign up for it. Orange High follows the same policy of requiing opt-ins for the test. Perhaps some Cedar Ridge parents should send some letters...
More Information:
Issues:
Comments
The princpal sounds a
The princpal sounds a little clueless:
Maybe it's the unpopular war, the unpopular president, aggressive military recruiting tactics, and people just objecting on principle to the presence of the military in schools?
And maybe it's...
I'm still creeped out
I'm still creeped out by how often I get solicited for military service. I've opted out of being contacted a number of times now, usually accompanied by an angry email about how ignoring my previously stated request not be contacted essentially makes new contacts unsolicited spam, and that I consider the fact that they keep tracking me down to be a privacy concern. It's not an opposition to national service that bothers me, but then, I've yet to be boldly accosted by an Americorps recruiting officer.
This seems like the kind of situation that our School Board ought to be taking a position on. Or rather, I'm curious why we don't already have a stated policy that makes pacifists feel a little less like delinquents.
why not opt-in instead of out?
Vocational testing
Vocational testing is expensive. Is the school using this test in place of other vocational testing or is it in addition to other tests? In other words, is this the only choice students have to get vocational testing at Cedar High?
The in-school-suspension classrooom?
sample letter & informative links
Here's a sample letter to help anyone interested. Plus it has lots of informative links.
The parental consent solution seems the fairest and mosty respectful.
School board members should receive copies of any letters. It is actually their call in the end.
http://www.orange.k12.nc.us/board/ocs_board_edu.html
Dear Superintendent Rhodes:
I am writing to ask you to protect the privacy of students in the Orange County Schools who take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, (ASVAB).
Although the military promotes the ASVAB as a voluntary "Career Exploration Program" administered to juniors and seniors, the US Army Recruiting Command's School Recruiting Program Handbook says the primary purpose of the ASVAB is to provide military recruiters "with a source of leads of high school juniors and seniors qualified through the ASVAB for enlistment into the Active Army and Army Reserve." See page 6: http://www.usarec.army.mil/im/formpub/REC_PUBS/p350_13.pdf
Unless a school district takes measures to protect student privacy, the data from the ASVAB is automatically forwarded to military recruiting services. This practice runs counter to the opt-out provision of Section 9528 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg112.html#sec9528
I believe the administration of the ASVAB may violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, FERPA, 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(a)(4)(A), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g(b)(1), http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/20/1232g.html . The administration of the ASVAB may also violateNorth Carolina General Statute § 115C-174.13; http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegislation/statutes/pdf/bysection/chapter_115c/gs_115c-174.13.pdf.
North Carolina State Board of Education Policy Manual mandates that schools follow FERPA. http://sbepolicy.dpi.state.nc.us/policies/EEO-C-017.asp?pri=04&cat=C&pol=017&acr=EEO and NC Law specifically regulates the dissemination of Social Security numbers:
http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/ByChapter/Chapter_132.pdf
Children who sit for the ASVAB are required to sign a "Privacy Statement" that gives permission to the military to use private information, including social security numbers and test results for recruiting purposes. See DoD Form 1304-5AS: http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/142264/index.php
This form is often signed by students without the consent of their parents, a practice that may also run counter to North Carolina laws that protect the privacy rights of minors.
(See this brief by the National Lawyers Guild, Los Angeles Chapter.)
http://www.nlg-la.org/Final%20ASVAB%20Memo.pdf
In the last year, many school districts, including three of the nation's largest school systems, Montgomery, MD, Prince George's Maryland, and the Los Angeles Unified School District, have taken steps pursuant to military regulations that allow for the administration of the test but preclude test data from falling into the hands of military recruiters.
The U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command identifies 8 options schools have regarding the administration and release of ASVAB information. These options range from Option 1, which permits test results and other student information to be released to military recruiters without prior consent, to Option 8, which requires active consent to release the ASVAB test results and private information. School officials typically cite the importance of ensuring student privacy when selecting Option 8. Inaction on the part of a school system will cause the military to automatically select Option 1.
Districts across the country district require students to have a signed parental permission form to take the test.
See USMEPCOM Regulation 601.4 Personnel Procurement Student Testing Program 25 July, 2005, pages 12 & 13 for an explanation of the various options available to public school systems: http://www.mepcom.army.mil/publications/pdf/regs/r-0601-004.pdf
I urge you to select ASVAB Option 8 and require parental consent for all children taking the test.
What's Really Important?
I would never attempt to justify the principal's decision to send the students to the in-school suspension room because that's where he had supervisory staff support, or his decision on how to administer the test. But I do have problems with seeing this as the military's "insidious creep" into our schools. Schools make the testing decisions, not the military.
What always seems to get lost in this debate is the need. When this test started in 1968, we still had the draft. In it's 40 year history, many believe that it has become the most respected assessment tool on the market and the school districts do not pay for it directly. We have seen the the results of asking the recruiters of the various services to meet their goals in an environment that is downright hostile in some communities. Without debating the why, suffice it to say that just like recognizing that our water is not an unlimited resource, so too is our freedom that some take for granted. Like water, some just want to assume it will always be there.
I would love to see people in this community get fired up about the fact that we have kids in our "top rated" schools who can't get a passing score of 31 on the ASVAB. We seem proud that 91% of our graduates go to college, but has anyone told you how many graduate in five, six, or even seven years? Some wasted their time and money going straight to college; they had no idea what they wanted to do. Studies have shown that a significantly high percentage of people who take the test better understand themselves after they are counseled on the results. Many who serve first and then go to college report that they are more successful students.
What about the 9% who don't go to college? What testing do they receive to help them understand their skills and abilities? Yes, taking the test does have costs - recruiters contact you until you ask them to stop. Most recruiters will tell you that many of the young folks that they are in contact with may want to consider the military but are afraid of the reaction of their parent(s). That's why recruiters continue to contact kids AND try to talk with the parents. There is no excuse for abusive recruiting practices, and those who engage in them are punished.
So, as I said, we are really upset because kids are "forced" to take a test, but when will we get really upset because too many of our kids can't pass it? And when will we realize that it's in this nation's best interest to have "our" kids volunteering to help to defend our nation for a couple of years? Funny how this is so much like the landfill issue: let some other community have their kids do it!
PS: I am not in favor of a draft - been there and done that - and it's not in our best interest at this time. We can do what we need with quality volunteers.
Fact check
Not the Case, Mark
The reason I dislike getting into these discussions is that I know that Mark M. will trop out his one-trick pony. Mark, you need to broaden you viewpoint as see what the totality of defending our country means. It is not just a war in the Middle East, our national security involves a great deal more. As for your economic view of everything, not comments anyone makes will change your mind.
As an aside, we ought to stop allowing PSATs and SATs so that those pesky college recruiters will leave our kids alone!
SAT's are not accurate either
Bates College did an experiment. Accepted some of it's students using SAT scores but allowed others to withold their SAT scores. They went back later to assess college success and their was no significant difference in how they performed.
I think people are missing
I think people are missing the point of the "vocational" part in the ASVAB. When I was in high school back in '02 or '03 (CHHS), it was highly encouraged to take the ASVAB if you were thinking about community college. I don't even remember now if I actually took the test (I remember being asked about it back then), but the emphasis in pushing it was as another tool for students to figure out what their post-secondary plans should be (which isn't just college!). It's just another test, just like the SAT or PSAT or even those boring Metropolitan Assessment Tests back from 9th grade.
But let's think about this from another angle. When I was in tenth grade, everyone in that grade was required to take the PSAT (and that's not even the grade in which you qualify for National Merit either!). Is that necessarily any different than this? My feeling is no.
Patrick KingOne huge difference
Maybe Not True
Unless you totally opted out, your PSAT was shared with a host of institutions that were interested in your demographic - that's what generated all of those letters and catalogues. Among those institutions were the several service academies and public institutions of the several states. And yes, they got your SSAN for the purpose of identification and financial decision making.
I think the point is that the ASVAB is a counseling tool. It would be interesting to get a school counselor to talk about how they have used the tool and how much it would cost the system and/or parent to obtain similar information. Of course the military services use the data for recruiting. If one objects to that then we need to find out how we might otherwise evaluate people. Contrary to what you might read, the vast majority of recruits have pretty sound educations.
Here are the January numbers - all 100% or higher. These 17,654 young people took the test and SOME made their decision based on what they learned about themselves from the test.
Perfection?
The Way it Works
Mark, what the recruiting commands do is if they are going to meet their monthly goal, they will hold other folks for the next month. Obviously, it doesn't always work out, even with central management.
The data comes out each month at the DoD news release site http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/
It is different, if ..
I'm in the apparent minority of those who see good reasons for holding students to standards that must, on occasion, be tested. And like Fred, I am more than a little concerned about how academic ability has not been as well served in this state as it could/should be -- for a large and intricately woven fabric of reasons.
So note that PSATs, SATs, etc., aren't true "aptitude" tests nor are they diagnostic in any true sense. Despite their names, they test absorption of a certain knowledge base and set of academic skills. Although their predictive ability has been challenged, they do provide one yardstick for kids, counselors, admissions people, and even parents in the whole pre-college process -- with no other purpose than that.
However, my take about the ASVAB from the media and this discussion, althought I haven't seen the test itself, is that it purports to be a diagnostic tool. Such a test can be useful as well, if.... if it is administered by and reported only to those involved in a student's academic life (schools, parents, student). These tests are designed for military purposes, provided by the military, and reported to the military -- which is still fine if ... if those taking the test want the military to be part of their thinking about their future and are quite happy to have the results known to the military. But if not, and if the test is presented as somehow other than optional for students, it is certainly worrisome in an era when (among other things) the lines between foreign and domestic intelligence are blurred beyond reclamation.
In this case, it does seem that the principal made a ?tactical? error in sending opt-out students to a room associated with punishment, which -- of course -- implied something negative about opting not to take the test. I can't imagine publicly segregating students who opted not to take an SAT in a detention room -- can you imagine the outcry and the interpretations of such an action?!
Think it's possible to overestimate the menace from the principal here, but I do give students credit for thinking about the implications of their taking the test and making choices of conscience. Meanwhile, it's certainly worth questioning whether the test meets a significant need with no other way to meet it, or whether the test is more appropriately administered elsewhere under other auspices. And it would indeed be preferable to have an opt-in arrangement instead of the current opt-out system.
Just curious
End Game?
How many of us here are still doing what we first did out of high school or college?
I remember taking the Kuder® Career Search test in 11th grade back in1962. The counselor told me that one day they will invent computers and then something called the Internet, and then I would spend time talking with all sorts of people about all sorts of things. She then recommended the study of logic. :-)
Job Testing in School: My Results
My junior year in high school, we had a career counseling course which took some scantron-sheet questionnaire, fed it into a computer, and spit out potential careers for us. My top recommended careers were as follows:
1. Puppeteer
2. Grain Buyer
3. Fireman
While none of these worked out for me, I sometimes wonder "what might have been" when the Bread and Puppet Theater comes to Weaver Street Market...
When I took one of those
Mine were a little more
third grade
Jason says:
In third grade I was nominated for class pessimist but declined because I thought I would lose. True story.
@!$*%#! Standardized tests
I could write a book about how useless standardized test were for me. But I'll spare you. Let me just briefly say that I didn't learn how to take tests. That was all high school seemed to be for some ... Learning how to game a system.
The smartest peice of advice I got in High School was from a substitute teacher in my math class. I asked why I needed to learn this particular type of math. How would it benefit me after HS? He said, "You are learning how to learn. That is the most important thing you can get out of school."
To this day I LOVE learning. I read alot, practice listening to people, and love sharing what I know. BUT none of those positive attributes came about because of any test I took in public school. It was that wisdom from a part time underpaid teacher who loved teaching children.
I really don't think this is a conspiracy...
I wonder if the tests
Sad to say
Sad to say you are correct about the etymology. This is from dictionary.com:
[Origin: 1570–80; < It infanteria, equiv. to infante boy, foot-soldier (see infant) + -ria -ry]
Solidarity!
Just Sick
This whole thing makes me sick. They want kids to have the opportunity to "opt out" of sex education, "opt out" of reading books with cursing, but this is okay.
I think Mark's original thoughts on this were dead on.
Of course, I did go to a school studied by Philip Morris (without any consent) to see how many of us would start smoking, so I am not surprised by any of this.
As for the tests, if I had listened to those: I would have been an auto mechanic. Given my history with cars, that would have been very bad for society...
At every level, this just makes me physically ill.
--Freedom is not just another word
When will the military stop calling?!
My son graduated from Cedar Ridge in '06 (and apparently took this stupid test ... i know WE never saw any results, but apparently the military recruiters in the area did) The recruiters are still calling!
Funny ... I thought student records were confidential.