Along with his Penn State education colleagues Dr. Dana Mitra and Bryan Mann, Dr.
Mark Hlavacik published a new article, "Opting Out: Parents Creating Contested Spaces
to Challenge Standardized Tests," in the March 7, 2016 issue of Education Policy Analysis
Archives. In their article, Mitra, Mann, and Hlavacik examine how the opt-out movement
responded to the strange mix of stringent federal testing policy and the weak, often
variable implementation of those policies at the state level. Talking with movement
leaders and analyzing movement discourse online and elsewhere, Dr. Hlavacik and his
colleagues discuss the role of ambiguity as both a policy strategy for state government
and a resistance strategy for movement members. The article is available here. In addition, there is a video of Dr. Mitra and Bryan Mann describing the article
available here.