A few days ago, I posted about the inappropriate actions by the Chicago Public Schools in interviewing elementary schoolchildren — without parental permission — about a standardized test boycott (see I Don’t Get A Sense That The Chicago School District Has A Clue About Parent Engagement).

Now the Chicago Sun Times has published an editorial on it, which they’ve titled Terrible idea to interrogate kids.

Here are some excerpts:

It may be legal, but it’s wrong.

Chicago Public Schools investigators on Thursday interviewed children, some as young as 8 years old, without their parent’s consent at Drummond Elementary School about state ISAT testing, undermining trust between the school system and parents and, most damaging, between children and their teachers….

But CPS damaged its credibility with parents, and undermined the trust that is so essential to good schooling, by choosing, foolishly, to interview small children on such a sensitive matter without even informing their parents — the ones who made the final decision on skipping the test.

CPS had the law on its side, but wisdom was nowhere to be found.