March 22, 2002

Individual School Name & Address

Dear Individual’s Name:

In the most recent issue of CANECTIONS, we promised you an educational handout for charter schools to distribute to parents regarding the importance of participating in STAR testing. Attached is the promised handout that we are providing all CANEC members. We recommend that you distribute this to all parents who ask to exempt their child(ren) from participation in STAR testing. Many parents are unaware of the far reaching impact of their decision to exempt their child(ren). They are unaware that the decision they feel is a personal family choice can, in fact, have far reaching impact including reducing funding levels for charter schools and continued political support for all charter schools. The Academy for Academic Excellence, a nonclassroom-based charter school in Apple Valley, saw their participation rate increase from 76% to over 94% simply by talking with their parents and educating them on the benefits which can be obtained by each student taking the STAR tests.

We acknowledge that testing is a controversial area of discussion, with passionately held beliefs on each side of the issue. Furthermore, while it is very appropriate that charter schools have multiple forms of assessment, the STAR program is currently seen by the general public as the one standardized system to gage the success of public school students statewide. Newspaper reporters and State Board members also focus their attention on participation rates – with a special emphasis on charter school participation rates. And as we have seen so clearly lately, today’s headlines become tomorrow’s legislation.

Please consider distributing the enclosed handout to parents who are asking to exempt their child(ren) from participating in STAR testing.

If you need any additional information, or would like to talk about CANEC’s position, please feel free to contact our Governmental Relations Office at (916) 448-0995.

Very truly yours,

David J. Patterson, Ed.D.

Director of Governmental Relations and Advocacy