Long Island remains capital of student testing opt-out movement; look up your district
The testing opt-out movement has a long history on Long Island. In April 2016, these seventh-graders at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Port Jefferson Station who opted out of taking a standardized math test spent time reading or doing homework instead. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
More than 100 of Long Island's 124 school districts recorded student opt-out totals above the state rate in the latest round of statewide testing, driving a boycott movement that long has impacted New York, a Newsday review found.
Results showed Nassau and Suffolk counties maintained their controversial 10-year record as the epicenter of a statewide test-boycott movement for students in grades 3-8, supported by many of the region's parents and teachers. The movement leaves New York as one of only a few states where substantial numbers of families refuse to participate in annual standardized testing required by federal law, experts said.
Supporters describe the movement as a protest against a testing system they say has discouraged creative learning in favor of classroom drill work that puts excessive pressure on students and teachers alike. Opponents respond that disruption of testing has deprived taxpayers and others of accurate scoring data they need in order to judge districts' performance and hold local education officials responsible.
In any case, boycotts continue to generate big numbers, though down from their peak of a few years ago.
For the latest round of tests in English Language Arts, or ELA, for example, nearly 70,000 students in grades 3-8 in Nassau and Suffolk counties — 36% of those in the region eligible for testing — skipped them after parents or guardians signed refusal slips, a Newsday analysis showed.
In contrast, less than 9% of students boycotted the English tests in other parts of the state.
Similar results were reported for the state's latest math tests, with a 34% refusal rate on the Island and 8.4% across the rest of the state.
Newsday's analysis covered results of tests conducted statewide in April and May, and drew on data released by the state's Department of Education on Dec. 14.
Long Island districts with some of the highest opt-out numbers on ELA tests included Comsewogue with a 72.5% rate, Connetquot, 69.6%; Shoreham-Wading River and Lindenhurst, both 67.2%; Levittown, 60.8%, and Plainedge, 60.5%.
Test refusals have run so high, and for so long, that some school leaders said they have become like part of the landscape.
"This is like a decade worth of ripples that continues to expand," Levittown schools Superintendent Todd Winch said. "This has become pretty much just the way things are — almost part of our history, right?"
About 2,000 students out of 3,314 total opted out of ELA tests in Levittown in the spring. Winch said because state scoring data is missing for so many students, his district, like many others, depends heavily on results of private standardized tests that it purchases to track student progress.
"I'm not opposed to assessment," Winch added. "I think there are definitely benefits to taking it. But we also understand parents have a right to do this [opt out], and we will support them as well."
In the Shoreham-Wading River district, Superintendent Gerard Poole agreed families should not be pressured to participate. He added that his system has seen a slight increase in test-takers in recent years, especially in the younger grades, though numbers remain relatively low.
"We don't make any concerted effort to drum up participation," Poole said. "We have a robust local assessment system. Parents are well-informed on student progress."
Jennifer Quinn, the Comsewogue schools chief, said her system's refusal rate, while high, has been declining in recent years, and that her district is providing parents and students with information on how data generated by the tests can help further programming in the district.
"However, in the end, it is the parent's and a student's decision on whether the student will or will not participate," Quinn stated.
Newsday's analysis found that, of the 100 districts statewide with the highest percentages of ELA refusals, 72 are located in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Boycott pockets also were found in other suburban areas of the state, including districts outside of Buffalo and in Westchester and Rockland counties and other portions of the Lower Hudson Valley.
Overall, more than 150,000 students opted out of ELAs statewide. Many other students missed tests for a variety of reasons, including illness.
On the Island, professional analysts over the years have observed that the opt-out movement is strongest in middle-class districts. These are areas, experts say, where teachers and parents are most likely to live in the same neighborhoods, shop at the same supermarkets and compare notes on stressful effects of testing.
"We spent a decade doing a tremendous amount of work on Long Island, face to face," said Jeanette Deutermann, a Bellmore resident, parent and longtime boycott leader.
Nonetheless, Deutermann said she was "shocked" by the continued high opt-out numbers. She also contended the value of using standardized tests in measuring achievement levels in districts is overrated, in that this is heavily influenced by family incomes and levels of school funding.
"When you go to a district like Jericho, and you see that it looks like a college campus, you shouldn't need to have kids sit for hours being tested to know they'll score well," Deutermann said.
Deutermann is also the main organizer of a volunteer online network for parents, educators and others known as Long Island Opt Out.
Across the state, pressures for less testing extend not only to assessments in grades 3-8, but also to the high school level. As a result, state Regents exams, a staple in high schools for more than a century, are currently under a critical review by the Board of Regents, which sets much of the state's educational policy.
Some taxpayer advocates see all this as moves in the wrong direction.
Andrea Vecchio, an East Islip homeowner and taxpayer activist, said the public needs to see test results to ensure district-level accountability.
"Otherwise, there's no way we'll be able to know whether kids are learning or not," Vecchio said. "And people won't be able to compare how scores are doing from year to year or district to district."
Vecchio is founder both of a local taxpayer group in East Islip and a regional organization, Long Islanders for Educational Reform.
The opt-out movement, with beginnings on Long Island in the 2012-13 school year, exploded statewide with the testing season of spring 2015 and has remained strong since.
Under long-standing federal law, states must administer English and math tests annually, and must try to ensure that 95% of students in each public school participate. However, New York authorities have ruled that students are not to be penalized for opting out.
"There are no consequences for a child who does not participate in a state assessment," states a fact sheet issued by the state Education Department.
In Washington, D.C., a federal education spokeswoman contacted by Newsday did not respond with answers when asked to explain her agency's policy on opt-outs.
State education authorities have taken major steps in an effort to ease testing pressures.
In 2018, testing in ELA and math was shortened from three days to two in each subject. The following year, districts no longer were required to use test results in rating teachers' job performance.
New York remains a rarity, nonetheless, in the strength of its opt-out movement. A leading national test critic, Bob Schaeffer, said he knew of only two states, New York and Colorado, with boycott movements of any size.
"New York in general, and Long Island in particular, are national leaders in the test opt-out movement, and the Board of Regents seems to be taking this seriously," Schaeffer said.
He is public education director for FairTest, a Brooklyn-based advocacy group that focuses on what it considers abuses of testing systems nationwide.
More than 100 of Long Island's 124 school districts recorded student opt-out totals above the state rate in the latest round of statewide testing, driving a boycott movement that long has impacted New York, a Newsday review found.
Results showed Nassau and Suffolk counties maintained their controversial 10-year record as the epicenter of a statewide test-boycott movement for students in grades 3-8, supported by many of the region's parents and teachers. The movement leaves New York as one of only a few states where substantial numbers of families refuse to participate in annual standardized testing required by federal law, experts said.
Supporters describe the movement as a protest against a testing system they say has discouraged creative learning in favor of classroom drill work that puts excessive pressure on students and teachers alike. Opponents respond that disruption of testing has deprived taxpayers and others of accurate scoring data they need in order to judge districts' performance and hold local education officials responsible.
In any case, boycotts continue to generate big numbers, though down from their peak of a few years ago.
WHAT TO KNOW
- More than 100 Long Island school districts recorded student opt-out rates above the state rate in the latest round of statewide testing in grades 3-8, driving a boycott movement that has long impacted New York.
- Supporters describe the movement as a protest against a testing system that they say has discouraged creative learning in favor of classroom drill work.
- Opponents respond that disruption of testing has deprived taxpayers and others of accurate scoring data they need in order to judge districts' performance.
For the latest round of tests in English Language Arts, or ELA, for example, nearly 70,000 students in grades 3-8 in Nassau and Suffolk counties — 36% of those in the region eligible for testing — skipped them after parents or guardians signed refusal slips, a Newsday analysis showed.
In contrast, less than 9% of students boycotted the English tests in other parts of the state.
Similar results were reported for the state's latest math tests, with a 34% refusal rate on the Island and 8.4% across the rest of the state.
Newsday's analysis covered results of tests conducted statewide in April and May, and drew on data released by the state's Department of Education on Dec. 14.
Long Island districts with some of the highest opt-out numbers on ELA tests included Comsewogue with a 72.5% rate, Connetquot, 69.6%; Shoreham-Wading River and Lindenhurst, both 67.2%; Levittown, 60.8%, and Plainedge, 60.5%.
Opt-outs: Part of the LI landscape
Test refusals have run so high, and for so long, that some school leaders said they have become like part of the landscape.
"This is like a decade worth of ripples that continues to expand," Levittown schools Superintendent Todd Winch said. "This has become pretty much just the way things are — almost part of our history, right?"
About 2,000 students out of 3,314 total opted out of ELA tests in Levittown in the spring. Winch said because state scoring data is missing for so many students, his district, like many others, depends heavily on results of private standardized tests that it purchases to track student progress.
"I'm not opposed to assessment," Winch added. "I think there are definitely benefits to taking it. But we also understand parents have a right to do this [opt out], and we will support them as well."
"This is like a decade worth of ripples that continues to expand," Levittown schools Superintendent Todd Winch said. Credit: Brittainy Newman
In the Shoreham-Wading River district, Superintendent Gerard Poole agreed families should not be pressured to participate. He added that his system has seen a slight increase in test-takers in recent years, especially in the younger grades, though numbers remain relatively low.
"We don't make any concerted effort to drum up participation," Poole said. "We have a robust local assessment system. Parents are well-informed on student progress."
Jennifer Quinn, the Comsewogue schools chief, said her system's refusal rate, while high, has been declining in recent years, and that her district is providing parents and students with information on how data generated by the tests can help further programming in the district.
"However, in the end, it is the parent's and a student's decision on whether the student will or will not participate," Quinn stated.
Newsday's analysis found that, of the 100 districts statewide with the highest percentages of ELA refusals, 72 are located in Nassau and Suffolk counties. Boycott pockets also were found in other suburban areas of the state, including districts outside of Buffalo and in Westchester and Rockland counties and other portions of the Lower Hudson Valley.
Overall, more than 150,000 students opted out of ELAs statewide. Many other students missed tests for a variety of reasons, including illness.
Opt-outs strong among middle class
On the Island, professional analysts over the years have observed that the opt-out movement is strongest in middle-class districts. These are areas, experts say, where teachers and parents are most likely to live in the same neighborhoods, shop at the same supermarkets and compare notes on stressful effects of testing.
"We spent a decade doing a tremendous amount of work on Long Island, face to face," said Jeanette Deutermann, a Bellmore resident, parent and longtime boycott leader.
Nonetheless, Deutermann said she was "shocked" by the continued high opt-out numbers. She also contended the value of using standardized tests in measuring achievement levels in districts is overrated, in that this is heavily influenced by family incomes and levels of school funding.
"When you go to a district like Jericho, and you see that it looks like a college campus, you shouldn't need to have kids sit for hours being tested to know they'll score well," Deutermann said.
Deutermann is also the main organizer of a volunteer online network for parents, educators and others known as Long Island Opt Out.
Some taxpayer advocates see a move away from an emphasis on testing as a move in the wrong direction. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
Across the state, pressures for less testing extend not only to assessments in grades 3-8, but also to the high school level. As a result, state Regents exams, a staple in high schools for more than a century, are currently under a critical review by the Board of Regents, which sets much of the state's educational policy.
Some taxpayer advocates see all this as moves in the wrong direction.
Andrea Vecchio, an East Islip homeowner and taxpayer activist, said the public needs to see test results to ensure district-level accountability.
"Otherwise, there's no way we'll be able to know whether kids are learning or not," Vecchio said. "And people won't be able to compare how scores are doing from year to year or district to district."
Vecchio is founder both of a local taxpayer group in East Islip and a regional organization, Long Islanders for Educational Reform.
No opt-out penalty in NY
The opt-out movement, with beginnings on Long Island in the 2012-13 school year, exploded statewide with the testing season of spring 2015 and has remained strong since.
Under long-standing federal law, states must administer English and math tests annually, and must try to ensure that 95% of students in each public school participate. However, New York authorities have ruled that students are not to be penalized for opting out.
"There are no consequences for a child who does not participate in a state assessment," states a fact sheet issued by the state Education Department.
In Washington, D.C., a federal education spokeswoman contacted by Newsday did not respond with answers when asked to explain her agency's policy on opt-outs.
State education authorities have taken major steps in an effort to ease testing pressures.
In 2018, testing in ELA and math was shortened from three days to two in each subject. The following year, districts no longer were required to use test results in rating teachers' job performance.
New York remains a rarity, nonetheless, in the strength of its opt-out movement. A leading national test critic, Bob Schaeffer, said he knew of only two states, New York and Colorado, with boycott movements of any size.
"New York in general, and Long Island in particular, are national leaders in the test opt-out movement, and the Board of Regents seems to be taking this seriously," Schaeffer said.
He is public education director for FairTest, a Brooklyn-based advocacy group that focuses on what it considers abuses of testing systems nationwide.
