The desperation of the New York State Education Department to stop the Opt Out movement is boundless.
Newsday reports that the state may lower the rankings of schools with high numbers of opt out students, even though it knows that the schools are high performing schools.
There is nothing that State Commissioner MaryEllen Elia won’t do to force parents to sit their children down and make them take the state tests.
Shameless!
The state believes it must “deal with” these recalcitrant parents. It has never crossed Commissioner Elia’s mind that she should listen to the parents and find out why they won’t let their children take these pointless tests, that provide no diagnostic information to teachers or parents or students.
A statewide effort to deal with massive student test boycotts has sparked debate in the Island Park school district, where officials contend that one of their schools could face academic sanctions because of opt-outs there.
Island Park’s school superintendent, Rosmarie Bovino, recently posted a letter on the district’s website advising residents that Lincoln Orens Middle School was in danger of being placed on an upcoming state list of schools regarded as low academic performers.
Under a new state rating system that is based largely on test performance, such schools will be designated as requiring comprehensive support and improvement, or CSI. The state Education Department is expected to release names of the first group of schools as early as next week.
A note to the parents who opt out their children. Please remember that Commissioner Elia works for YOU. You do not work for her. Please remember that you pay her salary. She is not your boss. Please remember that the Pierce Decision of 1925 by the Supreme Court declared that your children belong to you, not the State, and the State has no power to standardize them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
NYSUT was a driving force that flipped NYS’s senate to Democratic control. If the legislature allows this nonsense to continue we all have some serious soul searching to do. It may mean flipping on our faux friends.
from the Regents Meeting: Quite contentious, as I understand if subgroups have low scores the school can be identified as a failing school, in reality the OptOuts may be higher achievers thereby driving schools into at risk categories , Regents members are objecting, a lively issue, NYS has 20% OptOuts, on Long Island (0%
Ain’t it great when an agency with the responsibility to educate all children resorts to extortion to implement failed ideas?
Starting with NCLB, public schools have faced nothing but extortion in the form of test and punish in order to serve up schools on a privatization platter.
It’s sickening. Extortion is exactly the appropriate term.
posted at ;
https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/New-York-State-May-Punish-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Diane-Ravitch_Education_Education-Curriculum_Education-Testing-190114-149.html#comment722186
with this comment which has embedded links at the above address.
I highly recommend you follow her site, and talk to her there.Diane Ravitch’s blog | A site to discuss better education for all
I have been using information from her site, about the state legislatures which are taking over the local schools, with nary an educator on board, and giving them to charters, with not a shred of oversight!
Here is her piece on the A Slick Campaign for Privatization .
Here is a link to Diane’s posts on charter school corruption .
Diane Ravich predicted the current disaster for public education years ago. How Not to Fix Our Public Schools and in her book Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools
Parents in the state should work to unseat Commissioner Elia. Attaching such high stakes to the testing totally defeats the purpose. Students should not be strong armed into accepting standardized testing, and the results will not yield any useful information to teachers or students anyway. The state should step away from the same old test and punish agenda that has been imposed on schools. Parents, teachers and students are tired of so much emphasis on standardized testing. New York’s students deserve better and more visionary leadership than Elia provides.
With ESSA requiring 95% participation, just about every K-8 school on Long Island could be labeled low performing.
Ugh, another ed reform echo chamber event:
“Teach For America Indianapolis
@TFAIndy
Jan 11
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Great spending time with RbnLake from CRPE_UW today discussing #Indyeducation and the need for reimagining how we do school to best and equitably serve students. Her co-authored piece in The 74 struck a chord.”
A university advocacy program that pushes charters and vouchers meets with TFA, who push charters and vouchers, and the whole thing is covered by The 74, who push charters and vouchers.
This is what passes for “debate” in ed reform, and, sadly, in the federal government. The only permissible discussion is how quickly to privatize and the mechanism for funding the contractors. The big decisions have already been made.
Doesn’t this just discredit the ranking system? They spent a bundle on the ranking system along with thousands of work hours. They want to make it completely invalid by using it to punish testing dissenters?
from the Regents Meeting: Quite contentious, as I understand if subgroups have low scores the school can be identified as a failing school, in reality the OptOuts may be higher achievers thereby driving schools into at risk categories , Regents members are objecting, a lively issue, NYS has 20% OptOuts, on Long Island (50% )
“Neck deep in the big muddy, the big fool said to push on…”
So well said, Steve! Exactly!!! When do these morons start to get a clue?
New York officials soften potential penalties for schools where many students opt out of tests — from Chalkbeat, Sept 2018
https://chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2018/09/14/officials-soften-penalties-for-schools-with-high-opt-out-rates/
Once Elia, always a liar.
I’m embarrassed to admit that Elia once worked in the Sweet Home School District in Amherst, NY which is almost literally spitting distance from Buffalo.
Once Elia, always a liar. Oh my Lord! Priceless!
I’d wear the low rating as a badge of honor to highlight the ridiculousness of the whole system.
Is there extra money for “additional instruction” for these “students in need of assistance”? That might work out to everyone’s advantage.
Why do we keep electing/appointing idiots in leadership roles?
Testing and Assessment 101:
Ethical statement:
To use the results of a test for anything other than what the assessment was designed for is UNETHICAL.
To use a student math and/or English standardized test to supposedly evaluate a teacher, school or district is not only completely invalid but UNETHICAL.
Isn’t it great that NY has a someone who is quite happy with enforcing UNETHICAL malpractices?
Where do these UNETHICAL educrats come from?
If no one participates in this charade it falls flat. Don’t give the tests, don’t take the tests. They are worthless anyway, as we know well. Stand together. ONe reason this continues is that teachers and families continue to believe that the sky will fall if they refuse. But if all teachers and all families, or even a large percentage of them say no, together, the policy will change. And administrators have a role to play here too.
ABSOFRIGGIN’LUTELY, Doug. EVERYONE.STOP.TAKING. STOP. ADMINISTERING. TESTS.
Nationwide walk out at the onset of the testing period WHEREVER you live, teach, learn, parent, so WHENEVER the testing period starts in your hometown, village, suburb, city, state.
&–if you have a testing monopoly corporation (such as Pear$on) campus in YOUR town, take those days & march at those campuses instead. EVERYONE.
The citizens will do what the state tells them to do, or your children will be punished. Next, will the state ask the children to turn in their parents for not complying with the state? Does Commissioner Ella wear a brown shirt? It certainly sound like she does. Children belong to their parents, not the state. The parents make the decisions for their children. New York has been a Nanny state far too long, parents can’t sit back and accept this.
This just in: standardized tests prove nothing about the quality of schools and everything about the demographics of the communities. I doubt that realtors will be steering prospective homeowners away from those high-performing opt-out districts…. And they won’t be steering them toward “high-performing” districts that trade high scores for anemic elective offerings…
This gambit by the Regents could backfire because it will prove the preposterousness of using test scores as the measure of “quality”…
Those who insist on high stakes testing should TAKE THOSE TESTS. I’d sure like to see how they react as well as their scores.
Hee hee. OMG, yes. I would love to see THEIR scores!
Time to ramp up the opt-out crusade!!!
I will continue to opt out and she can go to hell. My kids, my choice