Writing on the leading news site for New York City Parents, Leonie Haimson explains why about 20% of parents in New York State have refused to allow their children to take the state tests. 

The most important reason is that the tests have no value for individual students. The test results are not retuned until the fall, when students have a different teacher. Knowing their score without being able to review right and wrong answers is useless.

Haimson writes:

“So what are the facts? The state exams have been shortened from three days to two, which is an improvement, and the state mandated that no child could be held back because of a low score on the exam, and no teacher judged on the results, as occurred during Mayor Bloomberg’s administration.

“But there are still many questions about the quality and usefulness of these exams. Here a third grade teacher points out how many of the reading passages continue to be far above grade level, and how the results fail to provide any useful diagnostic information to teachers about their students. Many other educators have pointed out how the state exams are replete with questions like “What is the main idea” of a reading passage, while offering multiple choice answers that are confusing and ambiguous.

“As Jeanette Deutermann of Long Island Opt Out points out, the overemphasis on high-stakes testing has caused schools to narrow the curriculum, focus on low-quality worksheets and eliminate project-based learning. The exams also widen inequities and are toxic for students, as Johanna Garcia explains. Chancellor Farina privately told a group of NYC parents two years ago that she herself would opt out of the test if she had an English Language Learner or special needs child — though she refused to admit this publicly.

“The Common Core standards and exams have also promoted other damaging practices in schools, such as “close reading” strategies in which teachers aren’t supposed to explain the larger context of passages, with students deprived of the background knowledge they need to fully comprehend assigned texts. For the best and most concise critique of how this impairs learning, see a one minute video from Nick Tampio, professor at Fordham University.

”Indeed, some Common Core proponents are now backtracking and renouncing the value of the current state exams, including Louisiana State Superintendent John White, (formerly Deputy Chancellor of NYC DOE) who now says that reading tests should be based instead on knowledge and a broad curriculum.”

it is a giant waste of student and teacher time, as well as many millions of dollars.

No other nation in the world tests every child every year from grades 3-8.

A few years ago, I spoke in Texas to administrators and school board members. One school board member got up and identified himself as an engineer. He said that his company samples its products. If they inspected every single item, he said, they would have no time to mpmanufacture the products. All their energy would be devoted to inspection.