New York State Allies for Public Education is an organization that represents 50 parent and educator groups across the state. It has led the opt-out movement in the state. This letter was written in response to punish schools where the “participation” rate in mandated testing fell too low. The very best response to the state’s threats and warnings would be to opt out; the more that parents opt out, the less likely it is that the state can “punish” them for exercising their constitutional rights.
Dear Board of Regents, Chancellor Rosa, Commissioner Elia and Dr. Lisa Long,
We find it reprehensible that under the guise of ESSA, NYSED is seeking to punish schools when parents exercise their legal right to opt their child out of the grades 3-8 state tests and is overreaching by requiring the collection of confidential student data. These proposed provisions of the New York State ESSA regulations show a blatant disregard for the amount of public outrage over the last several years regarding the flawed New York State testing system, unproven revised common core standards, and the unnecessary collection of personally identifiable student information.
Strong opposition to the grades 3-8 common core state tests has been evidenced by 20%- 22% of eligible students throughout New York opting out of these state exams over the past three years, despite threats from the state and individual districts and a one-sided state-initiated persuasion campaign (the Commissioner’s “Toolkit”).
Only 8% of school districts in New York met the 95% testing participation rate in 2017, and while the state has not yet released the opt out figures for the 2018 grades 3-8 tests, several news accounts reveal that the opt out number will remain high, and that the majority of school districts will not have met the 95% participation rate as a result.
In addition, it took a legislative act to stop NYSED and then-Commissioner John King from collecting personally identifiable student data in the name of inBloom, a $50 million database that was going to be used for corporate data mining purposes without parental consent.
The proposed New York ESSA regulations will allow the Commissioner to mislabel schools with opt out rates over 5% — including highly effective schools — as needing Comprehensive or Targeted Support and Improvement, with the potential of wrongfully identifying schools as needing these interventions. These proposed regulations allow the Commissioner to require schools to misuse Title I funds in an effort to increase test participation rates. Moreover, the proposed regulations allow the Commissioner to close these schools, and/or convert them to charter schools. This is a dangerous path for NYS to take.
The mere suggestion of using Title I funds for ‘marketing’ of these tests is a misuse of authority that results in the revictimization and intimidation of communities that have a long history of being underserved and disempowered. Furthermore, it should be regarded as a civil rights issue as these actions will disproportionately aim to quiet the voices of schools with high populations of students from low-income households which tend to correlate with families of color.
None of these proposed provisions are required by ESSA law, none of them will improve learning conditions or outcomes for our children, and all of them contradict earlier statements from the Board of Regents and NYSED officials that schools with high opt out rates would not be punished or otherwise targeted, and/or wrongfully labeled for interventions, etc. The intention of the 95% participation rate in the ESSA law is to deter institutional/systematic exclusion by schools not to usurp parental rights.
We strongly request that NYSED remove these provisions from the proposed regulations and refrain from punishing schools when parents assert their legal right to opt out of the state tests. Moreover, under no circumstances, should NYSED collect confidential, personally identifiable student data. The ESSA law does not require punishing schools for opt out; rather, it fortifies a parent’s right to opt out. Furthermore, the ESSA law does not require collecting individual student data for the purposes of accountability, nor should the Commissioner and NYSED.
Until NYSED embraces teaching our children through the lens of whole-child education and stop test-driven classrooms, we will continue to squander opportunities to truly help all children reach their full potential. It’s time we give the children of New York a meaningful, well-rounded education, and create a nourishing environment where children flourish because they genuinely love to learn.
Respectfully,
Lisa Rudley, Executive Director
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Call me a cynic, but as long as the list of schools with high opt out rates include many suburban and upstate publics that are middle class, affluent and mostly white, this will be a lot of talk with nothing done to “punish” those schools. Now if the opt out rate was highest in the poorest inner city schools, no doubt those schools would be severely punished.
I think I’ll have to call you a realist on this NYCpsp! Is there any doubt that what you conjecture would be true? Not in my mind. Sad state of affairs, eh!
I totally agree with NYSAPE. How much more punishment do our NYS Schools need to take from this high stakes testing regime? In reality, we all know it is the kids who once again will hurt the most from anything that is done. NYSED needs to rid our schools of an education platform such as this and allow all children to be taught in a world where they can experience life long learning. NYSED and the Board of Regents must realize this. I do not understand after so many years, why they do not realize the failure Common Core has been and move on.
Diane,
I find it appalling that this continues to be the situation. It is so wrong in every way I examine it. I read your posts regularly and try to keep up with what is happening in our schools. Although I’m not a “teacher” in the sense of having regular classrooms; I’ve done after-school programs and student assemblies for more than 12 years and have 42 years with Scouting (boys and girls), as well as a number of years with church programs for children and families. The testing monster is hurting children and it infuriates me! It IS reprehensible! Sometimes, I just need to vent, and I feel sure that you understand.
Kas Winters
Kas,
I am as frustrated as you.
Instead of asking them to stop punishing those who Opt Out of high stakes rank and punish tests, we should demand that the only tests allowed are individual teacher made tests for the students each teacher teaches.
Quit being so logical Lloyd! 🙂
“. . . regarding the flawed New York State testing system, unproven revised common core standards. . .”
Flawed? FLAWED???
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
How about “. . . COMPLETELY INVALID New York State Testing System AND unproven revised common core standards THAT HARM ALL STUDENTS VIOLATING THEIR VERY BEING. . .”
Hurray for NYSAPE! I wish we had a similar group in CA.
LOL
Who doesn’t “know” the testing monster is for the money?
A particular violation of the human mind and spirit, continued for the money.
The re-active Opt-Out is needed BECAUSE a pro-active solution is NOT
the role model.
“Oh, YOU knew the senseless testing was bad, BUT did me that way,
and then huff and puff about the piss-poor morals of (fill in the blank).
What the hell do you think YOU showed me? What role model did you
display? Did you ever hear “what goes around, comes around”?
Who is fooling who here?” The unknown child…
“The re-active Opt-Out is needed BECAUSE a pro-active solution is NOT
the role model.” WELL SAID.
NYSED is really beyond the pale on their proposed ESSA compliance. That they should choose punitive measures against below-95%-tested [i.e., hi opt-out] schools [including threatening to convert a successful pubsch to charter?!] and invasive collection of private student info — neither of which is reqd by ESSA!! — is outrageous. WTH is wrong w/these people?
It comes as no surprise that Ms. Rudley has long been a powerhouse and luminous beacon in parent advocacy, developmentally appropriate and inclusive approaches to teaching and learning, and outright protection of public schools in the epoch of privatization.
NYSAPE represents parents, but parents represent voters who elect state officials into and out of office. They had therefore best listen to Ms. Rudley and her organization because they are not just tied to parents, but to voters. NYSAPE is a collective umbrella organization under which many other parent advocacy groups mobilize and have weighted influence.
Never underestimate the power of the citizenry and never disregard or minimize parents who are in “protection mode” toward their children. It would be like giddily throwing darts at a bear cub when the mother bear is nearby, nostrils flared and ears perked.
They would have to punish most of Long Island. Never gonna happen. Parents down there paying $20 – $40K in taxes for high quality schools would get out their pitchforks and torches.
Well, the state of Utah is being threatened by the feds for high opt-out rates. And opting out is legal in the state of Utah. What New York is doing is appalling, and I expect Utah will be doing it next.
I have heard the argument advanced that the reason NYS doesn’t tell the Feds to shove the tests is for fear that Trump would use this as a reason to come crashing down on us and open the gates of hell to Betsy DeVos. Seems, that when Obama/Duncan ran the show, the time for full fledged defiance would have been propitious. Yet no one had the audacity to take opposition to the max. So now, with an irrational president whose chief advisor is the Magic 8 Ball, we dare not act boldly
Since 2002, there has always been something new coming along from DC (although no one ever knew what it was) in the reauthorization of the ESEA that would address the atrocious testing program and its immeasurably harmful consequences. As possible revisions morphed from one vague package to the next, we lost a year or so only to find ourselves waiting for nothing different to happen. Just more smoke. Nothing to break out of the self-perpetuating testing cycle.
SED struggles to come up with twists that will make the program work. But when something is as rotten at the root and misguided as the Fed-mandated testing system (2002 NCLB setting forth impossible objectives and the 95% rule; 2011 RTTT with monetary incentives, aka bribes, to keep states in line; 2013 to date with tougher core standards that would make everyone ready for colleges/careers), it must be destroyed. And SED has had to come up with ways to comply and navigate.
Each level of government can blame the catastrophe on the other. But, focusing on NYS and NYC, each has shown complicity in the ongoing disaster. SED has suppressed information since Pearson was test publisher (2012-2016). This can only be explained as a desire to protect the program and the test from independent review. Thus, Pearson had a free five-year run at delivering a flawed program ($38 million contract).
The New York City Dept. of Education, for its part, has succeeded in keeping parents in a state of confusion about their right to withhold consent for their kids to participate. No doubt this lack of information has limited the growth of the City’s opt out movement, especially in districts that serve mainly Black and Hispanic communities. While the Mayor calls himself progressive, he has opposed grass roots opposition to the exams that hurt the poorest children the most.
We are facing a multi-layered mess here. The rest of NYS through the brilliant, tireless organizing and political savvy of Jeanette Deutermann on Long Island and NYSAPE’s Lisa Rudley in other counties, have created the only real counter attack parents have been able to sustain. They won’t stop, lose their educational vision or take false promises from the legislators who are responsible for creating a rational assessment program.
Full disclosure: I just completed a study with SUNY New Paltz that presents the kind of analysis and findings that SED has been able to avoid by concealing data. It’s called “Turning Our Kids Into Zeroes.” I hope readers of this blog will google it and find it an eye opener that can build opposition to the tests by demanding immediate information about the 2017 and 2018 exams that SED purchased from Questar, which succeeded Pearson and is now two years into a 5-year contract worth $44 million. We must not let SED and Questar march us off to another year, without transparency, impartial review and accountability.
Thank you.
Thanks for you insights and research. New York’s standardized testing continues to harm students, teachers and schools. It appears suspicious that the SED is hiding data. Here’s a link to the summary of the research. https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2018/07/how-nys-exams-are-turning-our-children.html
I have administered every grade 8 math and ELA NYS test since the start of NCLB (2001) through June 2018. I sat out one year during the peak of the madness (pre-moratorium) as a conscientious objector.
I have also spent years as a science item writer for Measured Progress. I was trained using the standards of the profession for both MC and CR items. My training with MP has given me a perspective on standardized testing that many classroom teachers do not have.
The Pearson and Questar assessments in ELA have been viewed correctly as the academic death traps that they were and are. The reasons why they have been so devastating should be explained:
1) The Common Core standards shoulder the brunt of the blame.
Test developers are completely constrained by the standards. If the Common Core standards were not developmentally inappropriate,
the tests would not be either.
2) Back to the CC standards. The Common Core standards in ELA were written primarily as very vague and subjective performance skills.
Here are some examples:
Cite supporting evidence. Determine the meaning of words. Author’s tone and intent. Drawing inferences. Comparing and contrasting points of view. How visual elements contribute to meaning and beauty.
These performance skills are point blank impossible to measure reliably or accurately. To make matters worse the MC format is used to a significant extent in testing a students ability to perform these same vague and subjective skills. This is extremely problematic and results in experienced teachers shaking their heads, confused by two competing MC options that both seem correct. This is why you hear about the author of a reading passage disagreeing with correct subjective response.
3) The NCLB/RTTT/ESSA requirement to test every year (instead of grade span testing) poses a problem for test writers that is nearly impossible to overcome. Developing tests with this level of discrimination for young children who are developing at such varied rates is a fool’s errand.
4) Cut scores are the secret sauce of test developers. Setting the cut scores is the specialty of psycho-magicians (not a typo). Enough said.
5) The opt-out movement acted to completely corrupt the test scores.
When half your friends are watching movies in the opt out room, the remaining test takers are subject to psychological forces that make the scores less than meaningless.
6) Test scores corrupt test scores. So its June 2018 and now you’re in the 8th grade. Yo haven’t passed a NYS math or ELA – EVER! Five straight years of failure despite the best efforts of your teachers. Year six and now what . . . ?
7) Cuomo’s four year moratorium completely corrupted the test scores as well, as they were rendered moot by the opt out pressure. Zero motivation never results in accurate test results. Just look at how well these same cohorts do on their Regents exams which are mandatory for HS graduation.
In conclusion, read Fred Smith’s findings and then email it to all of your administrators. The tests are not going away and until the standards get a complete overhaul (as when hell freezes over) the only thing teachers and administrators should do is to IGNORE the standards and IGNORE the tests. STOP bench mark testing, STOP scripted lessons (EnrageNY) and test prep and data walls. Teach math and ELA appropriately for young children. STOP talking about them professionally and STOP trying to improve scores. Do not stop promoting opt outs if you are a concerned parent or citizen. These tests and the standards that spawned the are not worth the paper they are written on.
Click to access db_20_tests_are_turning_our_kids_into_zeroes_a_focus_on_failing.pdf
Rage,
Thank you for bringing your experience, logics, wisdom, caring and, yes, necessary outrage to this. I would like to be able to talk further with you. Please drop me a note at fjstats at aol dot com
Fred
On a related note: Andrew Cuomo says “America was never that great” and then, in a move worthy of Donald Trump himself, tries to convince everyone he meant the opposite.
Ha ha ha.
What a clown.
“My family is evidence of American greatness.” — Andrew Cuomo, trying to walk back his previous claim.
I assume Andrew is speaking of his father cuz he sure can’t be referring to himself.