Merokeans Keep Kids from Taking State Tests

Officials from the Merrick and North Merrick School Districts told the Merrick Herald that 50 students opted out of taking the New York State tests that began Tuesday.

Both North Merrick Superintendent David Feller and Merrick Superintendent Dr. Dominick Palma addressed state testing concerns prior to the tests at April Board of Education meetings.

"In Merrick, student assessment results are used in a number of ways," Palma said. "For individual students, determinations regarding academic intervention services are based upon individual student results on the state assessments. The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District uses student scores to make placement decisions."

“Want to assure you that we’re not going to put our students or our teachers in a situation that’s going to be untenable or that will provide a compromising situation,” Feller added. “But I also want to make sure we deal with this issue in an appropriate manner.”

Some parents believe it's their right to pull their children from the tests, citing pressure and unfair standards as reasons why.

"I believe, as a parent, I have the right to refuse for my child to take the tests,” Tiffany Joosten, the mother of one child in the North Merrick School District, told The Merrick Herald. “I request that she be given alternate educational opportunities during exam times, such as reading in the library. I am also requesting that you honor my parental rights and not make my child refuse the test herself.”

From the Merrick Herald: 

Someone put fliers in mailboxes around Merrick on Monday that read “Urgent!! Parents: Choose to refuse!! (ELA Testing) Our children are being harmed!!” and referred readers to a Facebook page for more information. The page, “Long Island Opt-out Info,” has more than 7,900 members and links to a slide show that advises parents on how to “opt-out” their children from the tests.

Unitedoptout.com, another website that parents brought up at North Merrick School District meetings this year, advertises itself as an online resource for a national movement against “high-stakes testing.”
"The NYS assessments only measure a portion of all the learning and development our children experience as a result of their education in Merrick," Palma added. "Our students are well prepared, and with the support of you and our teachers, each child will demonstrate the high level of success on these assessments that we have seen for decades in the Merrick schools."
Palma and Feller said that the students who didn't take the tests were put in a separate room where they were allowed to read quietly.
Did you opt your child out of the State Tests? Tell us in the comments section below.