Standardized Testing Opt-Out Movement Grows Amid More Education Reform in Albany

Editor’s Note: Patch readers made this one of the more popular stories of the past couple of weeks, so we’re running it again because the issue of standardized testing has become an increasingly hot topic.

Written by LANNING TALIAFERRO (Patch Staff)

Improving some aspects of standardized testing is No. 5 on the 9-point education plan Gov. Cuomo announced April 1, after it became law as the Education Transformation Act of 2015.

The Chancellor of the Board of Regents will outline to the Governor and Legislature recommendations by June 1, 2015 on how to decrease the overall amount of state and local testing, improve test quality, and reduce test-related stress and anxiety.

Local educators are watching that with concern.

“I certainly support more reliable, and predictable, state testing,” said Hendrick Hudson schools Superintendent Joe Hochreiter. “If that means shorter and less-frequent mandated assessments, I certainly welcome that change. Assessments do provide schools, teachers, students and parents with valuable and important information. What we’ve seen recently, unfortunately, is the state and lawmakers placing too much reliance on these assessments. We’ve lost focus on the intent of assessments...which were always, and should remain, a feedback tool.”

Having the stakes ratcheted ever higher is not the only problem.

“Reducing the time and anxiety associated with state testing while improving the validity of the assessments are laudable acknowledgements of the concerns expressed by parents and educators alike,” said Briarcliff Manor Superintendent of Schools James Kaishian. “The statement however, implies that further limits will be placed upon local control of educational decision making. This intrusion has been confounding for high performing school districts that are both hampered and distracted by Albany’s one size fits all approach to education.”

Meanwhile, the grassroots movement to protest standardized testing and Cuomo’s education policies on them has skyrocketed.

Grassroots opposition groups such as nystoptesting.com have gained members, resources and clout—and discovered that getting parents to formally opt their children out of tests is a potent weapon. So many families are going that route that many local school districts, such as Brewster, have instructions for them on their websites:

Procedures for Students not Participating in the State Assessment Program

And lawmakers in Albany have been proposing bills that would require the State Education Department to inform parents of their right to opt their kids out of tests. In his budget statement, for example, State Sen. Terrence Murphy (R-Yorktown) said his goal was reducing standardized testing and returning schools to local control.

This week the Working Families Party and advocacy group Citizen Action of NY joined the call to mass protest by opt-out.

Citizen Action says that the governor’s plan is flawed. “...Even more time at school will be spent teaching to the tests. That means less time for real learning, or subjects like science, social studies, art and music,” the group writes on a webpage that presents parents with the tools for opting their children out of tests.

Capital Tonight talked to State Operations Director Jim Malatras recently about the opt-out movement.

“We understand there’s anxiety out there, more anxiety from the students and the parents, and we’re concerned about that, too,” Malatras said. “That’s why the governor has put into place a task force led by the chancellor of the state Education Department to look at testing - how you reduce the number of tests, how you reduce the anxiety surrounding testing.”

However, he compared the current opt-out movement to what happened in 2012, when test scores were first linked to teacher evaluations. “But in the end, when the system gets put into place you see virtually 100 percent compliance.”

The deadline for opting out of spring tests is April 13.