Number of students in Vermilion Parish opting out of PARCC grows as exam gets closer

The number of Vermilion Parish students opting out of taking the upcoming PARCC standardized test is growing. As of Wednesday, Vermilion Parish has now more students not taking the tests than Lafayette Parish.
Two weeks ago the parish only had 15 students. Today the number is now 56 out of 9,600 public school students.
If you do the math, it means one out of every 171 students in Vermilion is not taking the PARCC exam.
In Lafayette Parish, 35 out of 13,000 students have opted out. One out of every 371 students is not taking the exam in Lafayette Parish.
PARCC exams start Monday throughout the state.
There is one school that has just under 50 percent of the total amount of students in parish opting out.
Two schools in Kaplan have 32 out of the 56 students.
Rene Rost Middle School has 25, while Kaplan Elementary has 9.
North Vermilion Middle, LeBlanc Elementary and FIEB each have four students opting out.
Meaux Elementary has three students. The other schools are Cecil Picard Elementary (2), Gueydan High (1).
No schools in Abbeville and Erath have any students opting out.
Rene Rost Middle School, which is fifth through 8th grade, is aware of how many students are not taking the PARCC test.
“That is the parents’ choice,” said Rene Rost Principal David Dupuis as to why there are 25 students opting out. “When I speak to our parents about them opting out, I tell them your child will be receiving a zero. The school will be receiving a zero, so we would like them to take the test.”
Dupuis meets with each parent and student before they sign the document agreeing not to take the test. Dupuis said he does his best to convince both of them to take the test. He had five parents and students this week come into his office with the intention of not taking the test. He convinced them all to take the exam.
“Those who have opted out, it has been their choice,” Dupuis added.
With 25 zeroes, there is a good chance Rene Rost’s school performance grade will drop from a B school to a C school.
Dupuis said his teachers and administration will deal with the results.
Vermilion Parish Superintendent Jerome Puyau said it is a parent’s right to decide if they want their student to take the PARCC exam or not. The school district has created its own form for parents to fill out after they have decided not to let their child take the exam.
State Education Superintendent John White was quoted in the Lafayette Advertiser Newspaper saying he does not talk to many parents who fear PARCC exams. He said there are a million parents of Louisiana public school children and more than 700,000 students across the state and only a fraction of those parents have opted their students out of PARCC.
White would like parents who are thinking about opting out to speak to their children’s teachers or principal.
“I would tell them to talk to their teachers and ask their teachers what is the benefit of the children demonstrating what they can do,” he said. “The fact is that we’re all going to get good reports about each of our kids and what they can do. That’s really good to know — information about their particular skills and how they are doing relative to their peers. That’s a helpful thing. Historically, we haven’t known that sometimes until the 11th grade with the ACT. Now we’ll be able to know as early as third grade.”