PRESS ALERT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact:
Liz Rosenberg
917-697-1319
liz@girlray.com
Parents from Schools Across the City Stand Together:
Announce Latest Opt-Out Numbers and Launch New Grassroots Campaign
WHAT: On the day before NY State administers the Common Core Math tests to city 3rd-8th graders—thousands of whom refused the English exam, with even more expected to refuse tomorrow’s tests—NYC public school families will gather in Prospect Park to celebrate the unprecedented growth of the opt-out movement and to launch their latest grassroots campaign.
WHEN: Tuesday, April 21st at 4 P.M.
WHERE: Prospect Park bandshell, closest park entrance @9th Street and Prospect Park West.
VISUALS: Parents and children playing in park, holding posters that question putting profits before children. Weather is supposed to be gorgeous!
WHY:
Despite threats and deep-pocketed corporate ad campaigns to discourage test refusal, the opt-out movement in New York City has grown, reaching an unprecedented number of schools in neighborhoods throughout the city. Parents, the David, in this David & Goliath scenario, are demanding that children receive an enriching education, rather than be used to enrich corporate profiteers, who care most about their own bottom line.
WHO:
NYC OPT OUT is a loose coalition of parents throughout New York City who have come together to share information about the New York State tests and their effects on children, teachers, and schools. They support each other via the NYC Opt Out Facebook page. On Tuesday, both families who have refused the tests and those who are considering opt out will be present and available to speak to press.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
(With thanks to Robert Frost’s “After Apple Picking.”)
“After Bubble Testing”
My stubby, worn-pointed pencil’s laying there
On the gray desk,
And there are bubbles that I didn’t fill
On the sheet, and there will be two or three or more
Correct answers I didn’t pick on this test.
But I am done with bubble-filling now.
Essence of tired desperation is on the air,
The scent of May; I am sore exhausted.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
Of looking at several multiple choice answers that
All seemed probable and right.
I guessed, and let the pencil fall as it may; I’ve no choice-
Time was well
Expired before I finished,
And I well knew
What form my nightmares were to take.
Magnified bubbles appear and disappear,
Baffling articles, question stems and lettered options:
Is it A, B, C, or D?
My hand, now a claw, keeps the ache
Of a round pencil pressed in fervent grip.
The lead spins as my brain swims.
And I keep hearing through a classroom door
Sighs and the scratching sound
Of pencil after pencil filling in bubbles, bubbles…
For I have had too much
Of bubble testing: I am overtired
Of the data harvest I did not desire.
There seemed ten thousand thousand words to read,
Read again, puzzle over, and misunderstand.
And then I
Fell, struck the earth,
Psyche bruised and bloodshot eyes,
Collapsed into a useless heap,
Of no worth.
Can you see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, if I sleep at all?
Were they not out of touch,
The testmakers and politicians could say if my nights
Are like theirs; or perhaps explain why children
Are treated in ways so inhumane.
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Do we have any estimates yet on the opt-out numbers for NYC?
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2,500 students, or about 0.5% of the grade 3-8 population.
http://m.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/nys-students-opting-common-core-rises-activists-article-1.2188615
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I thought the number was MUCH higher than that, Tim.
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Yeah, of course (I’m just tired!)–Tim, a couple of posts after this says that nearly 200,000 opted out!
So please disregard my earlier comment.
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RBMTK, I was asking only about the numbers for New York City, not the entire state.
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Hello,
I am wondering if you can explain to your readers what “data mining” is and why it is not a good thing?
Thank you,
Michelle
Sent from my iPad
>
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