New York: Parents and Educators Call for a New Round of Opt Out to Protest
Flawed Tests
<https://dianeravitch.net/2017/03/20/new-york-parents-and-educators-call-for-a-new-round-of-opt-out-to-protest-flawed-tests/>
By dianeravitch <https://dianeravitch.net/author/dianerav/>
March 20, 2017
<https://dianeravitch.net/2017/03/20/new-york-parents-and-educators-call-for-a-new-round-of-opt-out-to-protest-flawed-tests/>
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*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 20, 2017More information contact:Lisa Rudley
(917) 414-9190; nys.allies@xxxxxxxxx <nys.allies@xxxxxxxxx>NYS Allies for
Public Education (NYSAPE) http://www.nysape.org ;<http://www.nysape.org/>*
*Link to Press ReleaseNew York’s Largest Grassroots Education Advocacy
Organizations Join Forces toUrge Parents to Opt Out of NYS Common Core
State TestsAcross the state, grassroots education advocacy organizations
including New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE), Long Island
Opt Out, New York BATs, NYC Opt Out and Stronger Together, are urging
parents to opt out of the NYS Common Core state tests.With New York State
Common Core state tests in grades 3-8 set to begin this month, hundreds of
thousands of parents have notified school officials that they will refuse
these flawed and harmful tests. Despite Commissioner Elia’s claims that
significant changes to these tests have been made in response to the
concerns of the public, parents and educators know that nothing could be
further from the truth.Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school
parent, founder of Long Island Opt Out and NYSAPE said, “We have made great
strides over the past few years. As a result of the opt out movement, many
agencies, organizations, and state leaders connected to education have
either willingly or forcibly shifted towards a philosophy of whole child
teaching and learning, recognizing the voting power that this movement
possesses. However, this shift has not resulted in the legislative changes
required to stop the misuse of test scores to rank, sort, and punish our
schools. We must continue to refuse the tests until the NYS education law
is amended.”New York City schools are resorting to misinformation and scare
tactics to discourage opt out in communities that have less access to
information, especially in Title I schools. While our schools should be
empowering parents to make thoughtful decisions on behalf of their
children, what we are seeing instead is the usurpation of parental rights.
To be clear, every parent has the right to refuse the state tests simply by
notifying their child’s school officials.” said Johanna Garcia, NYC public
school parent and Co-President of District 6 President’s Council.“As
always, there are those who wish to contain our influence and weaken our
resolve. Sadly, misinformation meant to strip the rights of parents and
quell opt out has been disseminated by organizations and school leaders
charged with overseeing the education our children. Facts are our weapon.
Information is our strength.” Eileen Graham, Rochester public school parent
and founder of the Black Student Leadership Organization.Nate Morgan,
President of Hastings Teachers Association and Vice Chair of Stronger
Together Caucus said, “The tests are longer than ever with young students
sitting for up to five hours per day for 6 days of testing and even longer
now with the Commissioner’s untimed testing policy. The common core
standards remain essentially unchanged and the benchmarks used to determine
proficiency continue mislabel hundreds of thousands of students as
failures. Teachers continue to have minimal input in test construction and
in fact, are not even permitted to read the tests they are compelled to
administer! Parents and educators recognize the failure of both
Commissioner Elia and Governor Cuomo to respond to our concerns. The opt
out movement will continue.”“While Governor Cuomo is desperate to present
himself as a progressive champion of education, his actions prove that his
education platform is most closely aligned with that of federal Secretary
of Education Betsy DeVos. Coupled with his failure to fully fund our public
schools, Governor Cuomo’s refusal to amend the Education Transformation
Act–a law that requires the use of junk science, unfairly punishes schools
serving the most vulnerable students, and supports privatization
efforts–proves that he cares little for our children and the well-being of
our schools,” emphasized Marla Kilfoyle, Executive Director of BATs, NYS
public school teacher, and parent of a NYS public school child.We are
encouraging parents to reject harmful and developmentally inappropriate
tests along with non-researched standards, the continued misuse of
assessment data, and efforts to punish and privatize the most under-funded
schools by opt outing out of the 2017 NYS Common Core state tests.NYSAPE is
a grassroots coalition with over 50 parent and educator groups across the
state*
