Schools

Why School Chiefs, State Advocate Opting In on Exams

The potential consequences of low turnout should not be taken lightly, according to district leaders and state education officials.

The message from the New York State Educational Department and local school district chiefs is clear regarding state exams: Have your child sit for the test.

Yet district leaders and state officials acknowledge there are no punishable actions for students opting out of next week’s exams. The bottom line is that parents can choose to have a child not take tests and have them attend school doing alternate activities during testing hours to avoid being marked absent.

But state officials say it’s a risky proposition for children who may need extra educational services and they warn districts that a low turnout could impact state aid monies and educational standing.

Find out what's happening in Sayville-Bayportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As districts and parents gear up for next week’s English Language Arts exams, and the state math tests at the end of the month, there is a growing movement on Long Island to opt-out of the tests for two main reasons.

One is that the tests are based on the new state Core Curriculum that many districts have not completely integrated into programs. State and district leaders admit that likely means test scores will be extremely low. So low that the state isn’t really going to ‘count’ this year’s scores in terms of assessing district performance.

Find out what's happening in Sayville-Bayportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The second is an increasing agitation over the stress students experience taking exams and given this year's expected low scores that the stress level will only get worse.

In fact Bayport-Blue Point Superintendent Vincent Butera stated at Tuesday’s board meeting he intends to send a letter home in the next week warning parents that scores will likely be low and that the results may not reflect students’ true academic aptitude.

The letter, he said, will be aimed at making sure students and parents don’t take low grades as a failure event.

Butera doesn’t expect a huge opt-out movement in his district though he acknowledges there is greater attention to the option this year.

“To date less than a handful of parents have indicated that they were considering opting their child out of the exams. There is no disciplinary action taken against a student who does not complete the state exams. As long as the district maintains a 95 percent participation rate on the exams, no sources of revenue will be affected,” he told Patch in an email this week.

Sayville school leader Dr. Walter Schartner expects a similar experience but noted that there is no ‘official’ provision in  New York State law or the state education commissioner's regulations allowing parents to opt-out of state assessments.

“If a student is in school they must be offered an exam. If the student refuses to take the exam, there is a provision to mark student refusal,” he told Patch in an email. The district does not take any punitive action on students opting out, he added, but explained there could be reprecussions.

“Exam results are often used for placement into gifted and talented programs or accelerated courses in middle school. Not taking the exam can eliminate a student from selection,” he noted.

He also stated that missing several days of school is never a good thing.

“My concern is that the student would need to miss the three days of testing and three days of make ups for two or three exams. Twelve or 18 days of absence is not beneficial for any child,” he said.

Another big impact of poor test turnout is the potential loss of Title I money for a district if 95 percent of students at each grade level, from third to eighth, do not take the exam.

“The district will be labeled "in need of improvement" with the task of writing and implementing an improvement plan regardless of how well the 94 percent of the students perform," said Schartner.

"We also are not aware of how this will effect a teacher and principal's Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) number from the state. It is a little more complicated than just opting out,” he added.

The strongest message against opting-out is clearly coming from the state education department. It expects all students to participate in state exams as part of the core academic program.

"Three years ago the Board of Regents adopted more rigorous standards and committed to reflect those standards in the state's exams. The goal is to make certain that all students are on track to succeed in college and meaningful careers when they graduate high school,” Dennis Tompkins, NYS Educational Department spokesperson, wrote in an email to Patch.

“Parents who keep their children from taking these tests are essentially saying, 'I don't want to know where my child stands, in objective terms, on the path to college and career readiness' -- and we think that that's doing them a real disservice."

Tompkins also reiterated Schartner’s points regarding potential district impact if requirements for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) are not met.

Here is what Tompkins stated in the response regarding the impact of opt-out:

While no new districts will be identified as "Focus Districts" and no new schools will be identified as "Priority Schools" based on 2012-13 assessment results, there are multiple negative consequences for not meeting the 95 percent participation rate requirement:

(1) Schools in which subgroups do not meet the participation rate will fail to make AYP.

(2) SED will continue to determine and report AYP every year. A school that has not been designated as Focus or Priority and fails to make AYP for the same subgroup for the same measure for 09-10, 10-11 and 11-12 would be identified this year as a Local Assistance Plan (LAP) school. LAP schools would have their accountability status changed from Good Standing to LAP for the 2013-14 school year. LAP schools, in collaboration with the school district, will be required to annually use a diagnostic tool to develop a local assistance plan.

(3) Although SED plans to designate Priority Schools only once during the waiver period, accountability status can change during the waiver period. For example, Good Standing schools can become LAP schools.

(4) Schools failing to make AYP cannot come off Priority and Focus Status. Focus and Priority schools can petition to have their designation removed if, among other things, they meet the participation requirement in ELA and math for all accountability groups (Focus) and for all groups for which the school is accountable in the most current school year results that are being used as the basis for the petition (Priority).

(5) Schools failing to make AYP cannot become Reward Schools and are therefore ineligible to receive the funding that comes with that designation.


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