Opt-Out: As State Exams Begin, Many Students Sitting Out
At a recent Brewster Board of Education meeting, the frustration and anger over the upcoming New York State assessments was too overbearing to hide. Near the end of the meeting, a parent stood up and urged a small group of fellow parents also in attendance to take a final stand against the direction public education is going in New York.
The message was simple: Refuse to let your child take the ELA and Math assessments this April and opt them out of the exams.
That one parent’s utter dissatisfaction and message is being felt all throughout the Lower Hudson Valley, as a movement to essentially boycott the tests is spreading faster than wildfire. With the ELA state assessments for grades 3-8 starting today and lasting until Thursday and the Math assessments occurring April 22-24 for grades 3-8, a wide net of students in Putnam County will be sitting out.
When Andy Falk ran for the New York State Assembly last year, Common Core – and the exams attached to it – was an issue he discussed consistently, criticizing the rollout of the new standards. After allowing his older son to take the state tests last year, Falk said the decision to opt-out this year was not taken lightly.
Falk, who has two sons but only one, Nathan, is old enough to take the test, said he and his wife don’t feel there is any educational value to taking the assessments.
“We think that the testing is being done for all the wrong reasons,” Falk, who is a Carmel school district parent, said.
Because Governor Andrew Cuomo wants the tests to be linked to teacher evaluations, Falk is concerned his kids are being taught to be good test takers, not critical thinkers. To test students in April and not get results until over the summer and not even note which questions students struggled with is puzzling to Falk.
Not only has Falk opted his son out, but he’s also done so very publicly. With a bit of a larger public profile from his two runs for elected office, Falk wants other parents to know they aren’t alone when they disallow their children to take the tests. Falk posted the letter he sent his son’s principal at George Fischer Middle School on his Facebook page and got an enormous response.
“I’m trying very hard to go outside the community that’s already committed to opting out,” Falk said. “It’s been very gratifying to see people so receptive.”
Mahopac Teachers’ Association president Tom McMahon has the unique perspective of a teacher, union leader and parent all within the Mahopac school community. He too, has been incredibly vocal about opting students, including his own children, out of the state tests.
Parents already feel ignored and in turn, McMahon said, are using the opt-out as the last line of defense against an education agenda that is as polarizing to parents as it is complicated for students. McMahon said he opted out his children the past two years and is doing so again this year.
McMahon also said most parents don’t like that their kids are being used to take tests as a way to evaluate the effectiveness of their teachers. By opting out, McMahon said parents are sending lawmakers the message that they trust their kids’ teachers.
“These exams don’t do anything for students,” McMahon said. “They don’t teach students anything, they don’t learn, and they don’t count for kids.”
While McMahon readily admits he would love to see as many parents opt- out of these state exams, his role has been to educate parents in his community on how and why to stop their children from taking the tests. Putting out fact sheets, holding community forums, and using social media are all avenues McMahon and other teachers in the county are using. Living in the community he also works in, McMahon said he’s fortunate to informally talk with and answer questions from fellow parents on the basketball courts or lacrosse fields.
While McMahon said there aren’t a specific number of refusals he’d like to see, there is a clear goal locally and statewide.
“That goal is to basically send a message to legislators that parents aren’t going to stand for this,” McMahon said. “At the same point as far as the number of opt- outs, to really invalidate statically the tests.”
Brewster Board of Education president Dr. Stephen Jambor said there is an overwhelming amount of frustration because of the way Common Core was rolled out, the way the assessments have been prescribe and the way the numbers are being used, all without validation.
“Most people are waking up to this now and getting very frustrated and very annoyed and feeling powerless,” Jambor said. “And when people feel powerless, they’re going to try to somehow balance out the equation.”
While Putnam Valley Superintendent Dr. Fran Wills understands why parents are refusing the tests, she is a proponent of allowing students to take the tests and has even posted a couple messages on the school district’s website explaining why she encourages parents to allow their children to take the assessments.
In an interview, Wills noted the district has done “an awful lot here” to address higher learning standards within the Common Core and the district would like to have a sense of how they’ve done in improving education for all students.
There are many flaws within the state tests, Wills admitted, but there is an important role assessments play because they help the district design a structure to reach higher standards and expectations for Putnam Valley students.
“The fact is students are going to be faced with tests throughout their lives, some of them will be very challenging,” Wills said. “We would like to feel that students would feel very confident to take the tests and would use that as an opportunity to continue to improve.”
“However what has happened is the entire issue has become so political that it’s very hard to sort this out,” Wills continued to say. “I would like to be able to protect our students from the politics and we’re finding that more and more difficult.”
