Local Parents Challenge NYS Assessments

A rising group of parents across Long Island are considering pulling their grades 3-8 children out of class or silently boycotting the New York State assessments when they are administered beginning next week.

A Facebook group entitled "Long Island Opt-Out Info" has gathered nearly 6,000 members, some of which are Sachem district residents unhappy with state-mandated high-stakes testing. Among some of the concerns are the pressures it puts on children, the degree to which standardized tests are used to determine a child's academic success and the influence of corporate interests in mandating these tests.

Complicating the state tests this year is that the tests have incorporated the federal Common Core Curriculum standards, which New York State recently adopted. Common Core is a national effort to raise and set new educational standards uniformly across the US. On Long Island, many teachers are still in the professional development phase of incorporating Common Core practices in their regular classrooms.

Though the growing terminology for this movement continues to be "opt out," some parents are preferring the term "refuse," because opt out implies that New York State has made the tests optional. They have not.

Sachem Superintendent James Nolan said that while he can't tell parents what to do with their children on testing day, there is no opt out provision and students who don't take or don't attend the exams will receive a 999 designation, which is best described as a zero.

"We have to comply with New York State," Nolan said. "So we can't tell people they can opt out. We have to promote pretty much 90% attendance at an exam. We're still waiting to get more information from the state, because obviously if a parent makes a certain decision we don't have a choice."

Nolan added that if enough 999 designations are reported in any given classroom it could have a negative effect on the new teacher evaluation stystem (APPR), because the "zero" grade would average into how the class performed. Student performance on state assessments is one of the categories by which teachers are now measured.

According to the New York State Department of Education (NYSED), however, there are other consequences to any mass refusal.

From the department in an email to Patch:

1. Schools in which subgroups do not meet the participation rate will fail to make AYP (ed. note: Adequate Yearly Progress).  
2. NYSED will continue to determine and report AYP every year. A school that has not been designated as Focus or Priority and fails to make AYP for the same subgroup for the same measure for 09-10, 10-11 and 11-12 would be identified this year as a Local Assistance Plan (LAP) school.  LAP schools would have their accountability status changed from Good Standing to LAP for the 2013-14 school year. LAP schools, in collaboration with the school district, will be required to annually use a diagnostic tool to develop a local assistance plan.
3. Although NYSED plans to designate Priority Schools only once during the waiver period, accountability status can change during the waiver period.  For example, Good Standing schools can become LAP schools.
4. Schools failing to make AYP cannot come off Priority and Focus Status.  Focus and Priority schools can petition to have their designation removed if, among other things, they meet the participation requirement in ELA and math for all accountability groups (Focus) and for all groups for which the school is accountable in the most current school year results that are being used as the basis for the petition (Priority).  
5. Schools failing to make AYP cannot become Reward Schools and are therefore ineligible to receive the funding that comes with that designation.

Dennis Thomkins, a spokesman for NYSED, added that he believed boycotting the state assessments would do more harm than good for the educational progress of children.

"Three years ago the Board of Regents adopted more rigorous standards and committed to reflect those standards in the State's exams. The goal is to make certain that all students are on track to succeed in college and meaningful careers when they graduate high school. Parents who keep their children from taking these tests are essentially saying, 'I don't want to know where my child stands, in objective terms, on the path to college and career readiness' -- and we think that that's doing them a real disservice."

Superintendent Nolan reiterated that the school intends to comply with the state's participation quota, but stated that standarized assessments are just part of the equation in student learning. 

"I think there is value to assessments. I don't think assessments are the end-all," he said.