Area Schools Fail on NCLB Recruitment Opt Out
by Kevin Friday, Feb. 10, 2006 at 11:34 AM

Based on our research, It is absolutely clear that when fully and clearly informed, significant numbers of students and their parents choose to opt out of having their private contact information released to military recruiters.

When Congress passed the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) Act it mandated schools receiving federal funds to release the names, addresses and phone numbers of Grade 11 and 12 students to military recruiters on request. Congress also mandated that students and parents be informed that this private information would be released by schools to recruiters, and that both students or parents be allowed to “opt out” of this release.

During the month of January, Worcester Indymedia made public records requests of area high schools to better understand how different schools were notifying students and parents about the NCLB requirements and how were students and parents responding to the different protocols used at area schools.

Worcester Indymedia research has found that when fully and clearly informed, significant numbers of students and their parents choose to opt out of having their private contact information released to military recruiters.

44.6 percent of all students at David Prouty High School in Spencer opted out this year; and an amazing 73.1 of the Class of 2006 at Leicester High School has opted out. But while you find high percentages of students opting out in Spencer and Leicester, neighboring Auburn High School reports that zero of their students opted out this year!

The chasm between these numbers is better understood when we review the notification processes used by each school. While both David Prouty and Leicester High School sent forms home to parents, and had clear announcements in the school handbook, Auburn High School’s notification efforts simply amounted to two sentences on page five of the Guidance Office newsletter.

It is clear from the NCLB Act that Congress felt preserving students’ privacy was important by mandating the required opt-out provision, but the legislation simply states that schools will “notify parents”. In a later follow-up statement on policy, the Department of Education clarified that the law mandated an “opt out” over the “opt in” option some schools and activists were attempting to utilize, and that the notification process was now explained as needing to be “reasonably calculated” to inform all. Give the limited clarity from both sources; it is of little surprise that Worcester Indymedia’s research found that Worcester area schools have created a myriad of permutations in implementing their notifications. Because of the many ways that schools can actively or in-actively choose to notify parents and students, an effort to grade and rank schools’ efforts is impossible. Instead, research was compiled on the number and percentage of students opting out in each grade, the method a school uses to notify parents and students of the opt out option and whether a school recognizes students’ ability to opt out themselves.

A compilation of area schools’ records and responses for further review is available at optout.pieandcoffee.org.

Many people we spoke to in writing this article stressed that work to educate and encourage “Opting Out” is not the solution to the militarization of our schools. Through the ASVAB testing alone, much if not all of an opt out lists are instantaneously made moot. Recognizing which area schools take pro-active steps to protect private information and which nonchalantly ignore privacy provisions do provide many with places to focus. Having real numbers gives both students and local activists something to point to or see as initial successes. Students Opt Out is a web page created by Worcester Indymedia members to continue efforts to collect and track this data. Local groups, students and individuals are encouraged to make public records requests of their schools and upload and share this information with others.

Worcester Schools

1. Worcester opt-out numbers are below average among those Central MA schools that distribute forms or letters home to students and parents.
2. Something clearly went wrong at Burncoat High School this year. Only 14 students (4.6%) in Grade 11 are recorded as opting out while 118 or 41.4% of Grade 12 students are recorded as opting out. That disparity is hard to explain away and it will be interesting to learn Dr. Caradonio’s explanation and find out if he takes any immediate corrective action?
3. Worcester is one of the few area schools that does not maintain opt-out lists for 9th & 10th grades. NCLB only mandates the release of Grade 11 and 12 student information. Whiles some schools have thereby chosen not to actively inform Grade 9 and 10 students, most at least respect students’ and parents’ privacy rights and maintain lists out of courtesy. Some like David Prouty, Newton North and South H.S. inform parents/students in all grades.
4. Worcester started using English, Spanish and Vietnamese opt out forms for the first time this year.
5. In his report to Dr. Caradonio, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Stephen Dr. Mills’ asserts that this year there has been a “dramatic increase in parents choosing to opt out”. You’re just left wondering what the numbers must have been last year.

Worcester Has Significant Areas for Improvement

1. NCLB is very clear that parents AND students are to be both informed and allowed to opt-out. The Worcester Public Schools fail to educate and inform students and our Worcester’s forms equally fail to recognize and include this part of the NCLB mandate.
2. Worcester has in place a repetitive yearly opt-out process. Those concerned about privacy rights argue that Worcester should immediately implement a policy effective in 9th grade that follows a student through all 4 years, replacing the overly bureaucratic yearly process.
3. As far as research could tell, there is no reference to NCLB “opt-out” information and process on the wpsweb.
4. Based on conversations with students there has been an increase in the number of recruiters at Worcester schools. I believe Worcester also continues to administer ASVAB testing. Unless ASVAB testing is eliminated, and military recruiters are more closely monitored, student “opt-out” policies provide minimal protection of student privacy.

General Research on Central MA Area Schools

1. How area schools describe the NCLB regulations and the procedures they use, vary significantly. The quality of the information given to parents and students is a significant determining factor. Schools that fail to actively inform students and parents and which provide inadequate notification are clearly shown to have opt out rates substantially below those neighboring schools that have met the minimum standards for notification.*
2. Comparing the opt-out rates between neighboring schools, serious questions exist as to whether W.Boylston Junior Senior High School, Shrewsbury Senior High School, Quabbin Regional High School, and Auburn High School’s efforts to inform students and parents meet the minimal notification threshold under the “Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act” (FERPA). The DOE Guidelines dated 9/9/02 state “A single notice provided through a mailing, student handbook, or other method that is reasonably calculated to inform parents of the above information is sufficient to satisfy the parental notification requirements of both FERPA and § 9528” Students and Parents at these four schools should immediately seek to have the notification processes and these schools changed, and if unsuccessful they should file a privacy complaint.

Specific Comments on Central MA Area Schools

1. Leicester High School – The Newton High School were added to the list of area schools to provide that “liberal”, “progressive” “soccer mom” foil to the more working class and rural school districts surveyed. Leicester isn’t Newton, nor is it Cambridge or Northampton. Someone’s doing their job though in Leicester, with the Senior class recording a completely unexpected 73.1% opt out rate. Central MA Principals cannot dismiss Leicester’s numbers, or David Prouty H.S.’s numbers for that matter. It’s difficult to claim these two schools have demographics so distinct. More than anything, Leicester makes it clear that actively educating students and parents and making it simple for them to opt out will result in large numbers of them requesting student data be kept private.
2. Auburn H.S. – While 73% of Leicester H.S.’s senior class has opted out and Worcester is reporting a “dramatic increase”, neighboring Auburn High School has ZERO students recorded as opting out. Something is seriously wrong that should worry school principal Casey Handfield and frighten all Auburn H.S. students, parents and the Auburn School board. If Leicester’s numbers reveal what serious efforts to educate students and parents will result in, Auburn provides proof of what poor and negligent efforts will create. The extent of Auburn H.S.'s notification to parents was two sentences on page five of the Fall 2005 Guidance Newsletter. Does that meet the FERPA guideline that notification be “reasonably calculated to reach all”? The announcement additionally fails to meet NCLB guidelines notifying students that they can choose to opt out, and also fails to give a required deadline.

   Historically, Auburn H.S. has had an overly cozy relationship with military recruiters. In the May, 2005 Army National Guard Newsletter Worcester Army Recruiter Sgt. John Bonneville’s recruitment efforts are highlighted, particularly his being allowed to bring the entire Auburn H.S. hockey team to see the Ice Cats, and then he had the “added bonus” of organizing “a two-hour hockey game played between the Auburn High School team and the infamous 2003 Armed Forces Champion ‘Red Legs’ Massachusetts Army National Guard team. What did Sgt. Bonneville’s think?, “This event helped me develop a rapport with some influential students in one of my schools,” said Bonneville. With the revolving door military recruiters find at Auburn H.S. it is little surprise NCLB opt-out notification requirements are side-stepped.

   Students at Auburn H.S. or parents that feel they were not properly informed by the school that private student information would be released to military recruiters have two options. Parents and students can contact the school and ask that a better notification be immediately put in place and/or they may file a complaint under the Family Rights and Educational Privacy Act (FERPA) expressing the failure to Auburn H.S. to notify them the release to the military of private student data. Letters of complaint should be sent to; Family Policy Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20202-4605.

3. Fitchburg High School – Some schools have chosen to downplay notification requirements, other schools have chosen to branch out from the recommended DOE parent notification template available to schools. While some have shortened the explanation down to two sentences for a newsletter blurb like Auburn High School, Fitchburg H.S. Principal Richard D. Masciarelli is the only area school leader that has apparently purposely misinformed students and parents. Masciarelli’s letter spins the notification as being based on “Federal, state and district regulations”, and lies to parents and students by stating in his opening lines that “The recruiting services [sic] have requested this information in order to inform students about scholarship programs, tuition assistance and other educational and vocational training opportunities available from themilitary.” It’s hard to believe a school principal could be that stupid, so you have to then assume this was purposefully written to be deceptive. Perhaps Principal Masciarelli should read the “School Recruiting Program Handbook” which the Army was recently forced to release. In their own words, they state that their efforts are designed to help recruiters “in penetrating their school market and channeling their efforts through specific tasks and goals to obtain the maximum number of quality enlistments” The handbook continues on the importance of following “an integrated recruiting prospecting-lead generation program that ensures total market penetration.” This is the real way that recruiters talk about our schools and our children.

   Principal Masciarelli also has a problem following directions, as he failed to properly and fully provide the data requested in my public records request.

4. Newton North H.S. and Newton South H.S. significantly hinder students and parents from excercizing their ability to opt out by co-mingling a military opt-out option within a blanket “third-party opt out” option. In failing to provide a separate and stand-alone military recruitment opt-out, Newton high schools forces students to release their private information to military recruiters if they want to have their contact information released to the prospective colleges and universities that no doubt actively seek out Newton students. This is in no way required.

   The Solomon Amendment, which since 1998 has forced colleges and universities to release private student information to military recruiters has forced higher learning institutions to follow co-mingled “third party” opt- out policies, but NCLB does not require this, and Newton high schools are the only area schools so far found to be doing this.

5. Questions remain for Shrewsbury High School, West Boylston High School and Quabbin Regional High School, all of which have classes with less that 1% of the student body opting out. Understanding the dynamic at each of these schools remains important and something students and parents should work to change.

   As reported earlier, students, parents and residents should meet with any school they feel is failing to meet NCLB guidelines and FERPA privacy rules. Providing background material from any of the surrounding schools quickly highlights where opt out processes are well implemented and where they are not. If necessary the threat of filing a federal complaint, or the actual complaint may turn the direction of a meeting with school administrators. Any conversation with school committee members, teachers etc. should be accompanied with a plan to educate and work towards the elimination of ASVAB testing and other mechanism recruiters use to gain access to our children’s schools and our children.

A complaint will be made to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Office against the schools that failed to respond to the public records request.

add your comments

Research Totals for Central MA Schools
by Kevin Sunday, Feb. 12, 2006 at 2:41 AM

download PDF (69.2 kibibytes)

School Opt Out Totals

add your comments