In New York State, high-stakes “Common Core” aligned testing in grades 3-8 is scheduled to begin Tuesday, April 10, and will continue through Friday, May 11. Test dates vary by district and according to whether students will be taking paper or computer versions of the ELA and mathematics tests. Under pressure from parents and teachers who object to the time allotted to testing, this year the state has reduced the number of testing days in each subject from three to two.
Despite shortening the testing time, opposition to the high-stakes tests continues. The NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE) argue that excessive testing and the inappropriate sharing of private student data “threaten the future of our students, our schools, and our state.” While they support meaningful assessments that are part of an educational program, they argue the “NYS Common Core (Next Generation Learning Standards) standardized assessments are aligned with unproven reforms neither supported by vigorous research nor vetted by educators and parents.”
In an open letter to parents and educators, NYSUT, the union representing New York State teachers, reports the grade 3-8 tests are “not measuring student performance and proficiency levels in an accurate manner.” While graduation rates are up state wide, as is performance on high school content area “Regents” exams, the common core aligned tests continually label students as “not proficient.” They accuse the high-stakes assessments of harmfully mislabeling students.
NYC Opt Out has a powerful video featuring Johanna Garcia on its website. Garcia is a parent and President of Community Education Council 6 (Northern Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood). She calls the standardized tests “toxic” and argues that accepting the testing-regime makes people complicit with an unfair, segregated, and unequally funded school system.
New York City’s new School Chancellor Richard Carranza got off on the wrong foot calling the opt-out movement an “extreme reaction.” Council member Daniel Dromm, the former head of the council’s education committee, shot back only thing that’s extreme is the way the state misused these tests. I can totally understand why parents opt out of these tests.”
On Long Island, the opt-out movement is especially strong. More than 50% of eligible students refused to take the tests in 2017. A significant number of students now entering middle school have opted out of the tests every spring. Superintendent Michael Hynes from the Patchogue-Medford District, who supports the opt-out movement, contends “There are much better ways of showing what a child can or cannot do, as opposed to bubbling in nonsensical A, B, Cs or Ds on a, I would say, ‘assessment.’”
It is not too late for parents to have their children opt-out of the exams. Neither students nor schools will be punished. NYSAPE has a sample letter parents can submit to their child’s school to have them excused from the tests. The sample letter reads:
“This was not an easy decision for us, but we feel that we have no other choice. We simply see these tests as harmful, expensive, and a waste of time and valuable resources. We refuse to allow any data to be used for purposes other than the individual teacher’s own formative or cumulative assessment. We are opposed to assessments whose data is used to determine school ranking, teacher effectiveness, or any other purpose other than for the individual classroom teacher’s own use to improve his or her instruction.”
In some school districts, parents are concerned that the district and its schools will be denied federal funds if families choose to have their children opt-out of the tests. Groups promoting the opt-out movement stress that this will not happen. According to Deborah Brooks, co-founder of Port Washington Advocates for Public Education, “Congress legislated the 95% participation rate in direct response to school actors engaging in the malfeasance of systematically excluding low-performing and/or special needs students from the state assessments. The participation rate was always about prohibiting such systematic exclusion and was never about prohibiting parents from exercising their right to refuse the assessments on behalf of their children. Accordingly, punishment is appropriate when and only when a school or district engages in systematic exclusion of children, and not when participation is low due to parents exercising their legal rights.”
The New York State Board of Regents recognizes this and assures the public that no school will be identified as low-performing because of a high opt-out rate and no students will be judged failing because they refused to take the state exams.
Jamaal Bowman, a parent, a Bronx middle school principal, and a member of the NYSAPE steering committee defended the decision by parents to have their children opt-out of the high-stakes exams. “Opting out does not equal failure. Opting out does not lead to a decrease in funding. Opting out is simply a parent exercising his/her right as a citizen; parents should have a say in their child’s education.”
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