One by one, and sometimes in pairs, teachers and community members took to the podium to address the Renton School Board at the Jan. 28 meeting. In total, 12 people shared their frustrations, mostly about the upcoming Common Core testing, the Smarter Balanced Assessments Consortium or SBAC or SBA, as they are commonly called.

Many teachers in the Renton School District are not happy about having to administer these state-mandated tests. Some even said that they are considering not administering the assessments, which is against district policy.

Sierra Heights fifth-grade teacher Julianna Dauble is one such teacher, who spoke out at the meeting.

“I would like them to actually allow me to opt out of administering it,” she said. “I don’t want to give the test and I don’t want to take 10 days of suspension, which would be the likely consequence for my insubordination.”

The high-stakes testing is not aligned with what she feels students need, she said, and assessments are increasing. As a mother of two children in the district, she has already decided to opt her children out of the tests.

“I object to the inhumane test environment imposed upon us by people who believe schools should be run like businesses and students treated like commodities,” Dauble wrote in her letter to the school board. “SBA will rank and sort children so labels of failure may allow takeover of public schools by privatizers in the name of ‘accountability.’”

Dauble spent the earlier part of Wednesday speaking to state legislators in Olympia about her concerns. Both the Washington State Democratic Party and the state Republican Party have passed resolutions opposing Common Core State Standards.

The state Board of Education has also recommended to the Legislature to eliminate the biology end-of-course assessment as a high school graduation requirement. The reasoning is that a focus on biology comes at the expense of broader science, technology, engineering and mathematics or (STEM-based) science curriculum.

The Class of 2015 is the first required under state law to pass the biology test or an approved alternative in order to graduate.

More teachers relayed concerns about the amount of testing they are required to do to Renton School Board members at last Wednesday’s meeting.

“I am concerned with the ever-increasing focus on data – data that in fact does little to inform my teaching,” said Michelle McLaughlin, a Sierra Heights teacher. “Many of the tests we are required to give tell us what we already know. I need no more tests or spreadsheets for collecting data. I need time to teach. My students need time to learn and to practice.”

At the high school level, preparation for the SBAC is just one of the tests eating away at instruction time, teachers said. Students are also challenged to take other standardized tests including the PSAT, SAT, the Washington English Language Proficiency Assessment (WELPA), High School Proficiency Exams (HSPE) and end-of-course (EOC) exams.

“We are so focused on the science and the data and our fear of falling behind as a nation that we are losing the art and heart of teaching, which is why we came to this job,” said Kerri Dowd, a Hazen High School teacher.

David Spring, of the Coalition to Protect our Public Schools, called upon the Renton School Board to withdraw from the Common Core State Standards, as he said other school boards across the country have done.

“We ask that the Renton School Board also pass a motion opting out all of the 15,000 students of the Renton School District from the coming SBAC test,” he said. “The students of the Renton School District deserve better than Common Core and SBAC. They deserve standards written by Washington state teachers and tests that are fairly constructed so that the majority of students have a reasonable chance of passing the test.”

The Renton Education Association will support all teachers who need representation, should they decide not to administer the assessments, REA President Cami Kiel said.

However, the teachers’ union has not taken an official stance on the Common Core State Standards or the SBAC.

“REA is opposed to high-stakes testing just like the state and national associations are opposed to it, but we’ve not taken a position on it,” said Kiel.

The organization’s membership has yet to officially bring the issue forward and vote on a position.

Personally, Kiel said she feels the testing will harm students and she’s heard from REA’s membership who echo that concern.

“I’m equally concerned,” she said. “I think the number of assessments and the high-stakes assessments (are) crushing our students and teachers. Teachers need time to teach and a lot of their time in the classroom is spent assessing students.”

The Renton School District did not return a request for comment by press time.