I posted earlier today a letter from a parent to a high-level NYC official, complaining about the city’s threat to cut the school’s funding if too many children opted out of state testing.
What do you think the official replied: we must follow the law. We must do as we are told.
Don’t you long to hear a governor or mayor or superintendent say to the parent: You are right. The law is idiotic. We will join you in a mass action of civil disobedience.
Don’t expect to hear it from anyone who works for the testing-obsessed Bloomberg administration. This is a mayor who has used his autocratic control to close more than 140 public schools based on their test scores. Without those scores, he would not know what to do next.
Here is the response from Shael Polansky to Jeff Nichols:
Jeff, the State Education Department has issued guidance that all eligible students are expected to participate; there is no formal provision allowing parents to opt their students out of State tests. The State also requires that all students in attendance during test administration are given the opportunity to take the exam.
With respect to the federal rule on participation – this is something that is out of our control – the application of this rule is governed by federal law and only impacts state accountability designations.
That said, any consequences that flow from being designated as a Priority or Focus school by New York State are within our purview and we carefully look at all the quantitative data as well as the qualitative information we have about the school. The purpose of this review is to come to a decision on the best way to improve the school. I can’t imagine a good school being penalized on our watch solely because they didn’t meet AYP as a result of the 95 percent participation rule.
Last year, there weren’t many students who opted out of the exams, approximately one hundred students out of several hundred thousand, and in these cases parents kept students at home.
For promotion purposes in NYC, we always use a combination of exams and student portfolios so students who miss exams for any reason can be considered for promotion based on a rigorous assessment of a portfolio of their work.
The larger issue you are raising though is about the quality of the exams and how they impact teaching and learning in our schools. I would agree that historically our state exams have not done a good enough job measuring the deeper skills of critical thinking and problem solving. This is beginning to change, partially in response to concerns that both parents and educators have raised.
I would welcome the opportunity to continue this important dialogue in person as I don’t think the exams are going away, but I do believe we can work together to strengthen them and ensure the information they generate is used in a thoughtful and balanced way.
Best, Shael
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Conciseness in writing would render this letter something to the effect:
Jeff,
I don’t believe in the testing regime either but I know who butters my bread so as a “good”* educrat I will punish those who go against my ability to earn a living.
Shael
*as in “good German”
Ah, the standard, “This isn’t going away” line. I hear that from the powers that be in my division, too. Of course this misuse of multiple-choice, standardized tests isn’t going away as long as we all toe the line.
I have been told the same thing by teachers as I fight the standardized testing of my subject. These teachers have told me that since testing history is coming, that teachers may as well have a say in it. They don’t understand that we should be fighting it, not caving in.
It will go away if enough people insist on it.
Do not stay aboard the train if it is heading towards a cliff.
Get off and get your children off that train.
How does the NYCDOE explain the page listed below if what Mr.Suransky says is true?
http://unitedoptout.com/state-by-state-opt-out/new-york/
Excellent question. They don’t explain. I think they’re banking on the fact that so far few families are actually opting out, so although probably their own fine print explicitly allows it, most parents won’t pay attention to that and instead listen to their bluster about how important these tests are for college and career readiness etc. etc. — and they also rely on crazy semantic distinctions. As best I can figure out, parents cannot “opt out” of the tests, but they can “refuse” them. Go figure. Confusion serves their interests. That’s why my wife and I and all our activist friends are trying very hard to press for clarity. Daylight will reveal this emperor has no clothes.
Maybe we should change the slogan from
“Opt-out” of the test to “REFUSE” the test. See what the response is after that.
Perhaps parent could encourage their students to engage in an act of civil disobedience. They could tell them to make pretty patterns with the multiple choice answers. A-B-C-D-D-C-B-A or some sort of random grouping. Or they could suggest that the children answer everything as C which stands for Crap which is what these tests are.
that would be awesome and the penultimate form of disobedience…how could they ever ignore that? I’m in a college in NJ that gets a lot of remedial students, and as seniors we were all given a standardized test created by the Educational Testing Service and told that this is supposed to measure how much the college provided its students with basic math and reading comprehension skills. I was flabbergasted, but not even because they don’t discriminate between the remedial students and the rest of us in giving this test. That is a relatively unimportant side issue. The reason I was flabbergasted was their insane use of this 25 question multiple choice test to try to quantify four years of college learning, and then sell either success or failure based on that score. Its disgusting. I did exactly what you just said, and just filled in a pattern of bubbles. That was at the end of the semester. Next semester the teacher who gave me the test expresses his deep disappointment that all I did was fill in pretty patterns. I straight up told him that standardized tests are flawed in so many ways. The studies are conclusive, and the fact that you and a group of other teachers and administrators decided to adopt this test and kowtow to ETS is shameful. His response was that this is all we have. Now that’s some BS.
The DOE’s response to this parent is hardly surprising. However, we might suggest to its’ officials and other compliant enforcers of, for example, the Common Core that they consider the words of Mr. Bumble in Charles DIckens’ Oliver Twist. When informed that “the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction,” Mr. Bumble replies, “If the law supposes that . . . the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.” Our job, I suppose, is to provide the experience required in this instance by any means necessary.
Here in backwater Buffalo our shiny new HarvardPhD empty suit of a Superintendent is marching in spineless step with the rest of these overpaid cowards. We agree with the state she says. Pathetic and nearby in KenTon a suburban district their Super is saying I was never afraid of these tests as a teacher and I am not afraid of them as an administrator. Nobody’s afraid of them idiot we are refusing to be evaluated on their results. Being evaluated on results kids know up front mean nothing is not a valid evaluation. Informed parents are tipping the scales as the gutless leadership of districts and NYSUT have done nothing to end this corporate kickback.
There is a clear cut but not surprising contradiction here when opting out is legally available to parents but can also trigger their children being deprived of educational funding.
The legality of this seeming contradiction should be looked into by professionals, and if possible, challenged in court.
Can anyone lend some insight here? Is anyone reading this blog an attorney specializing in this? Or knows someone who does?
BTW, for our English language learners taking the standardized test known as the New York State English as a Second Language Aptitude Test (NYSESLAT), there are no opt-out choices legally available to such children and parents. To not take the test in the absence of a physical illness or impairment, is illegal.
Opting out is only for white or native English, or English-proficient speaking children.
Immigrant children or children whose English is not standarized enough are subject to a different standard than their white or English speaking peers.
That’s New York State law.
This is exactly my question. I am not interested in my children taking another meaningless test, that serves to stress them out even further. But nor am i willing to jeopardize the district’s educational funding. Any alternative protests?
It doesn’t hurt their funding. The money that they “lose” is earmarked for students that want to be transferred due to lack of test participation (which won’t even happen) or for after school tutoring (which also most likely won’t happen). If the money is not used, it goes back to the district.
Parental refusal is not an “Atlant-nam style” Cheating Scandal.
Over past few days I have seen all sorts of reports that DOE’s, BOE’s, and Superintendents in NYS have threatened parents who wish to Opt Out of state tests by telling them their schools will no longer be considered a “passing school” (by not meeting AYP) and be designated a “Priority or Focus School” and as a result lose funding…. What legal scheming!
There is a huge difference between a school that covers up inadequacies by hiding poorly performing students either by cheating on the scoring of tests or having those students mysteriously not show up for tests and parents choosing, FOR THE RIGHT REASONS, not to have their children take those tests.
The response to Jeff’s letter inferred that there is no “legal” opt out.
The State also requires that all students in attendance during test administration are given the opportunity to take the exam. With respect to the federal rule on participation – this is something that is out of our control – the application of this rule is governed by federal law and only impacts state accountability designations.
THIS IS A LIE: GO TO THIS SITE
http://www.nystoptesting.com/2013/03/a-new-opt-out-letter-refuse.html
WHAT A CROCK!
I am a NY state parent and a NYC teacher. My son will be writing “refuse” on his state tests. I have already communicated this to his principal and received the usual cowardly educrat response. In NYC it’s a little different. If you are a student of Bloomberglandia, your scores count for “promotional criteria”. This is a policy of this dictator’s administration since he’s so in love with tests. Students in NYC are threatened with being held back or going to summer school if they don’t take the tests or “fail” them. Then, the teachers put together a bogus “rigorous” portfolio to pass the students anyway. It’s a farce all of the way.
As Polakow-Suransky’s letter says, and as he has stated elsewhere, parents can opt out and the child’s promotion will be determined by an evaluation of his or her classwork. Any principal who says otherwise is misinformed.
In reality, though, it is extremely difficult for parents to opt out unless they attend a K-8 program: admission to the overwhelming majority of quality middle school programs is determined in whole or in part by 4th grade state test scores, and many of the good non-specialized high schools want to see 7th grade scores. Most parents reasonably assume that the other testing years are good practice for the ones that matter.
Until this situation changes, the opt-out movement in NYC likely won’t gain a lot of traction.
I am also a NYS parent and a NYC teacher. My daughter will also be writing refuse on her tests. I have additionally opted her out of any other tests, such as SLOs and field tests, that are not teacher-created and count towards her grade. My school board is totally supportive of my decision. They see where all this is going. Several of my daughter’s teachers have even asked me to try to get other parents on board.
Thanks, and keep up the good work. I wish you well in recruiting other parents as that is where the ultimate power in this situation resides.
We have an exchange student with us, who had to take the PA Keystone exam last fall. He scored Basic, which is actually pretty good for someone whose native language is not English, and who was in the US for only a few months before taking it. Anyway, that is not a good enough score, so the school sent a letter stating that he would have to take it again, and attend tutoring sessions. I emailed the principal, opting our student out. The principal explained that every junior must take the test, no exceptions. This is not accurate. English Language Learners in their first year in US schools. Get a pass. Our student is not labeled as an ELL, but that is essentially what he is, plus he already took the test once. The principal does not know that I am an ELL teacher, so I am familiar with state policy. I emailed in a stronger tone, and now our student does not have to take the test. Had I not been familiar with ed policy, though, he might have had to.retake a test that he probably would not pass. There should be an exception for exchange students in these cases, too.
I have two kids taking the elementary tests next week in NYC public school. Frankly, if your kid is stressed out about the test, then you have a much larger problem than the law. I agree that the quality of the tests and the test results is suspect. But any successful person is tested in one form or another throughout life. Stop coddling your precious little darlings; if they are stressed about testing, it is because they learning it from you.
Johnny, I have 3 kids. One is too young to be tested. The oldest is simply bored by these tests, and these next two weeks are a huge waste of her time.
The third has anxiety. How exactly did the one learn this from me and the other two somehow didn’t??
Glad your family is so perfect. Wish we could all be so lucky.