Asking DESE for clarification

This afternoon, I sent the following off to DESE:

Good afternoon: 

I called Commissioner Bickerton's office with this query earlier today, and I have since received more questions myself, thus the follow up email. 

We have been told repeatedly over the past several months that there is no opting out of the PARCC pilot. Last night and today, I have heard several reports of Commissioner Bickerton stating last night that parents may, without consequence, opt their children out of the PARCC pilot*. I have since had a similar exchange related to me from a parent with Mr. Lee, with the 95% participation caveat from NCLB for districts opting those piloting out of the equivalent MCAS. However, I have seen nothing officially from DESE. 

I would ask, for the sake of any and all of us fielding questions out here that you please send out a clear statement on this via districts, MASS, MASC, and the like. I would appreciate being able to cite the Department directly, rather than heresay. 

Thank you very much for your time and attention, 

Tracy Novick

*yes, I know that there's a video of this exchange as well, though it's part of a larger exchange.
Should I hear anything further, I will of course post it here and elsewhere.

Two updates statewide on opting out of the PARCC pilot

First, Tantasqua in Sturbridge joined the list of districts that have publicly voted to allow parents to opt their children out of the pilot of PARCC.
Second, I'm getting multiple reports--though none in the press--that Senior Associate Commissioner Bob Bickerton at last night's PARCC parent information night in Framingham said that the state's position is that  parents may opt their children out without consequence. I'll see if I can get some confirmation on that today.

Bickerton on opting out

Lest these quotes, which were part of the Q&A at the end of Senior Associate Commissioner Bickerton's presentation today on PARCC, get buried, I'm pulling them out here. 

Regarding parental opting out:

 Our formal answer is 'there's no authority to let you opt out' ...In the world of reasonable adults, if a kid shows up, and says 'my mom told me not to take this test,' nobody is going to march him into a room, sit the kid down, and force him to take the test.

And specifically regarding Worcester's actions (which no one brought up by name; he did): 

Worcester voted to opt out, we believe that they had no authority to vote to opt out, but we're not going to do anything about it.

DESE on PARCC in Northampton

Because I'm a glutton for punishment  interested in how this keeps changing, I'm at Smith Vocational-Agricultural School in Northampton for another round of "PARCC and the Common Core in Massachusetts" with Bob Bickerton, which I liveblogged in Worcester here.
While I won't live-blog the parts that are repeats of the presentation, I will post as I see things that are new or different.

PARCC presentation for MASC

by Bob Bickerton, Senior Associate Commissioner for DESE
Maureen LaCroix, Special Assistant to Deputy Commissioner

And they're holding all questions to the end. Posting as we go