State Tests Begin This Week; Opt Out Movement Continues

As testing starts in math and English throughout New York public schools this month, the Opt Out movement is alive and well in the Hudson Valley.

This despite efforts by state education officials to dial back some of their more controversial standardized testing requirements since last year, when about 20 percent of the state's public school students refused to take the tests last year, according to the Education Department.

The movement was a conjunction of angry parents and teachers, who objected to everything about the tests, from how well or how poorly the questions were written to how much the scores count toward student, teacher, school and district ratings.

Although the state made changes, most notably choosing a new (Brewster-based) test-writing firm, and there was a huge leadership change, the Opt Out movement hasn't budged.

For example, the New York teachers union voted to to ask all of its members who are parents to have their own children refuse the grades 3–8 assessments this spring, saying "Parents and teachers share deep concerns about the standardized tests used by New York State for accountability purposes. Those include: stress on students, in-appropriateness and lack of validity of the Common Core-aligned tests, loss of learning time, misuse of tests for high-stakes decisions, erosion of local control over school decisions and lack of transparency on state test content."

Many Hudson Valley school boards are among the long list of New York districts that have passed resolutions against excessive high-stakes testing, according to New York State Allies for Public Education.

And the Opt-Out movement is angry that the state still will link test scores to teacher and principal evaluations. They'll count for 50 percent, starting this fall.

“As experience and common sense demonstrates, educational policies on critical issues such as teacher and principal evaluations and receivership should be decided by educational professionals or at least through separate bills, debated and discussed during public hearings, and not crammed into budget bills without expert input,” Lisa Rudley, Hudson Valley public school parent and founding member of NYSAPE said in a prepared statement April 1.

Among the students opting out again will be the children of Sheila and Rob Astorino.

The Westchester County Executive released a statement this morning:

The children of Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, and of his wife Sheila, a certified special education teacher, will again refuse to take part in this year's controversial Common Core tests, which begin this week throughout the state, Mr. Astorino today announced. The Astorinos will be joining tens of thousands of other New York families in withholding their children from the tests that have been roundly criticized by experts for being age inappropriate, experimental, and potentially harmful to traditional classroom studies.

"I said three years ago that Common Core was going to be a disaster for New York, and that has sadly proven true," Mr. Astorino, a former elected school board member said. "The governor scoffed at the legitimate complaints I and other parents made about these tests, so now he's backtracking to try and score political points. But don't be fooled by the tinkering around the edges that Mr. Cuomo has done with Common Core. The fact that these tests will not count for at least four more years proves this is still an experiment and that our kids are the guinea pigs."

Mr. Astorino supports higher New York classroom standards developed at the state and local level with the support and input of parents, teachers, and educators. New York was developing just such a curriculum -- it's now referred to as the "lost standards" -- when the Obama Administration dangled billions of federal dollars before states -- as long as they implemented the experimental Common Core that was devised by Bill Gates and others who sent their children to private schools.

"Our children are not guinea pigs for some national experiment," Mr. Astorino said. "They deserve an excellent education, with high and demanding standards. Anything else is unacceptable. Common Core is just a power grab by federal bureaucrats to control content, textbooks, and curriculum at an enormous cost to taxpayers."

The Astorinos have three school age children, although one is too young for the Common Core tests. Their children refusing to be tested this week are Sean, 12, a seventh grader, and Kiley, 11, a fifth grader.

State Senator Terrence Murphy said he and his wife would also opt their children out again, saying in a prepared statement:

For the third year in a row my wife and I will be opting our children out of this year's state mandated exams that are based on the abandoned Common Core curriculum. I am proud that the legislature and the State Education Department have recognized the misdirection of the Common Core curriculum and are moving New York's education standards forward.

There is clearly more work that needs to be addressed as we repair the damage caused by Common Core. Until we fully implement the recommendations of last year's Common Core Task Force I do not believe it is fair for any child or teacher to have such emphasis placed on exams that are only used to fulfill federal requirements.