State Ed Test Opt-outs: What’s the impact on policy?

Posted by & filed under CGR Staff, Rochester Business Journal.

Kent Gardner Choose to RefuseDissatisfaction with the NYS Education Department’s testing regime led many parents to allow their children to “opt-out” of state exams last spring. And now state leaders are engaged in a tactical withdrawal. With State Education Commissioner John King off to Washington—replaced by former Florida educator Mary Ellen Elia—Governor Cuomo is placing the blame for the botched Common Core rollout on State Ed’s doorstep and is calling for a reboot in time for his State of the State in January. Board of Regents Chair Meryl Tisch indicates her openness to changing the state’s teacher assessment system, the Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR).

EliaElia has been touring the state on a charm offensive. While noting that the tests are not optional under state law, she recently announced that next year’s math test would have fewer multiple choice questions and the English language arts (ELA) test would include fewer reading passages. Read more »

Opt-outs Create Challenge for NYS Testing Regime

Posted by & filed under CGR Staff, Rochester Business Journal.

Kent Gardner Choose to RefuseThe Common Core opt-out movement built up quite a head of steam this year. Although opposition to testing is hardly new, frustration over the Common Core standards, anger at Governor Cuomo’s budget power play over accountability and other factors spurred the formation of a large and diverse refusenik coalition.

State Education plans to use the tests anyway: “We are confident the department will be able to generate a representative sample of students who took the test, generate valid scores for anyone who took the test, and calculate valid state-provided growth scores to be used in teacher evaluations.” We’ll see. The Democrat & Chronicle reports the refusal rate for the math test was at least 25% for every Monroe County district but Brighton and Rochester. Read more »