State assessments are in full swing and so is the opt-out movement. Thousands of parents across Long Island have chosen to have their students not take the tests in an effort to protest the teacher evaluation system and what they believe is a test-driven curriculum.
In Carle Place, 634 students were eligible to take the ELA test last week and 285 (45 percent) opted out. This is a significant increase from the 44 students (7 percent) of the 636 students who opted out last year.
Among the parents opting their children out is Carle Place parent Kathleen Alvino.
“The tests are being used for the wrong reasons,” Alvino said. “Teachers should not be evaluated based on one test score. Especially a test constructed to make children fail, not give enough time and cover information that is beyond there level of education.”
Carle Place Superintendent Dave Flatley says that while he was not surprised that there was an increase, he was surprised at the size of the increase. Flatley said he respects a parent’s right to opt out, but still thinks that the tests are important.
“I understand the factors that parents consider in making the choice for their children and I respect a parent’s right to make that choice; however, I think that students should take the tests,” Flatley said. “No single test can give us a clear picture of a student’s academic abilities, but the analysis of many pieces of data over the course of time begins to bring an important picture of academic achievement into focus. To the extent that we lose one or more of the pieces of that picture, we are less certain about the interventions or opportunities we should consider for an individual learner.”
Across Long Island, the opt-out movement has exploded. According to the group Long Island Opt Out, 82,036 students have opted out of the ELA tests. But Jeanette Deutermann, who spearheads the Long Island Opt Out Facebook group, said she has mixed feelings about the refusal numbers.
“I am so incredibly grateful to parents that have chosen to stand up for public schools, their children, and our public school teachers by refusing to allow their children to participate in the NYS assessments this year. However, that is mixed with sadness that our classrooms have come to this. I would love for nothing more than to know that legislators, Governor Cuomo, and the State Education Department have finally heard us loud and clear as to what we want and do not want for our children’s education here in New York,” Deutermann said. “Unfortunately we continue to hear the rhetoric that ‘parents just do not understand how important these tests are.’ It is not that we do not understand the importance of knowing the progress of our children, it’s that we do not believe that these assessments are valid or useful in any way to give us that information on how they are progressing. We value the importance of child-centered, hands-on learning, and these Common Core assessments have robbed our children of that rich, creative learning environment all children deserve. We will continue to refuse these assessments in growing numbers until Governor Cuomo, the legislature, and the SED (State Education Department) reverses course.”
However, the SED maintains that the tests are a valuable indicator of a child’s progress, and said that test refusal is a terrible mistake.
“Test refusal eliminates important information about how our kids are doing. I do not pretend that test results are the only way we know, but they are an important piece of information. They are the only common measure of progress we have,” Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said. “We are not going to force kids to take tests. But we are going to continue to help students and parents understand it’s a terrible mistake to refuse the right to know.”
SED said under federal regulations, a school with less than 95 percent of its students participating in the assessment can lose significant funding.
“The state education agency is expected to consider imposing sanctions on that district, including—in the most egregious cases—withholding programmatic funds,” a spokesperson for the SED said. “What sanctions to impose must be decided on a case by case basis, taking into account the degree and length of time the district has failed to meet participation rate requirements and the reasons for such failure.”
However, Matt Jacobs, regional staff director for the Nassau chapter of the New York State Union of Teachers, said that legally, there’s no connection between state aid and students taking the test.
“There is no provision in the law for the schools state aid or state funding to be reduced in any way, based on the number of students taking the test,” Jacobs said. “We had schools last year where more than 5 percent of students opted out, and [the district] didn’t lose any funding.”
But not all parents are choosing to have their kids opt out. In the Westbury School District, 2,094 students were eligible to take the test and 66 opted out, which amounts to about 3.1 percent of students.
“Our community believes in public education and that the schools are doing the right thing for their children,” said Westbury School District Superintendent Dr. Mary Lagnado regarding the low rate of opt outs.
