Kate Taylor reports in today’s New York Times that both the federal government and New York State are considering sanctions to stop the opt out movement.

The state education commissioner, MaryEllen Elia, appeared on Thursday to be trying to walk a fine line — not wanting to appear to condone opting out, while saying she hoped the federal government would not withhold funds.

“I do think it’s good for kids to take the assessments,” she said. “I don’t think that it necessarily is good for kids to have resources taken away that should be supporting them in their classrooms.”

Officials at the federal Education Department have awhile to decide what to do. The state will not officially report its test participation rate to the federal government until mid-December, and the number will not be considered final until sometime after that, the State Education Department said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the federal Education Department’s spokeswoman, Dorie Nolt, said the agency was looking to the leadership of New York’s Education Department “to take the appropriate steps on behalf of all kids in the state.”

But parents expressed defiance, and some superintendents say they respect the rights of parents to keep their child out of the state testing.

The leaders of the opt-out movement said on Thursday they were not worried about consequences and any attempt to punish districts would backfire.

If state education officials “think parents are unhappy with them now, just wait until they take money away from school districts,” Loy Gross, co-founder of a test refusal group called United to Counter the Core, said.

Elaine Coleman, a parent in Yonkers who is active in opt-out and anti-Common Core groups, said she had already begun planning expanding the movement next year. “We’re hoping we’ll get double the number,” she said.

Many of the districts with high opt-out rates were in middle-class areas that receive little federal funding. But a few were so-called high-needs districts, with relatively high poverty rates.

One such district, the Chateaugay Central School District, near the Canadian border, had an 89 percent opt-out rate. Loretta Fowler, the superintendent, said that losing the district’s roughly $150,000 in Title I funding would force her to lay off three of the district’s 46 teachers. But she said she would still respect parents’ choice to keep their children from taking the tests.

“I would say that is their right as parents,” she said. “Leadership isn’t about telling people what to do.”

Dolgeville Central School District in Herkimer County, which also had an 89 percent opt out rate, received over $300,000 in Title I funds this year. The superintendent, Christine Reynolds, said losing those funds would force the district to cut extracurricular activities and arts programs.

She said she did not encourage parents to opt out, but she sympathized with their view that the tests were being used to punish schools and teachers.

“These are very highly educated parents that started the movement,” she said. “Their rationale is solid. I can’t really argue with them.”


The parents are acting in the spirit of civil disobedience, which has a long history in this country. Federal and state officials would do well to listen to the parents or the opt out movement is likely to grow in strength.