Common Core opponents take cause to Roosevelt Field mall

Opponents of New York State’s standardized tests took their message to shoppers at Roosevelt Field mall Saturday morning in a bid to broaden their base of support on Long Island.

Several dozen parents and teachers strolled the mall wearing white or red T-shirts that read “Opt-Out,” a reference to a movement encouraging parents to pull their children from exams based on the Common Core academic standards.

Jeanette Deutermann, the North Bellmore mother who is a prominent opt-out organizer, said activists were trying to reach parents who were not already familiar with their calls for testing reforms.

No demonstration took place; the event was not sanctioned by the owners of the Garden City mall. Teachers’ union members and parents with children simply browsed shops and ordered from the food court from 10 a.m. to noon, letting their T-shirts speak for them.

They said their opposition remained firm, despite testing changes state officials made in response to the boycott movement last year.

“Nothing has changed,” said Heather Naughton, 41, of Babylon as she entered the mall with her daughter, third-grader Sonia Romano, 8. “If we boil teaching down to nothing more than a number on a page, we’re going to lose teachers’ passion for teaching and students’ passion for learning.”

Naughton and her daughter wore handmade “Opt-Out” T-shirts. They planned to shop for spring clothes, the mother said.

“Opt Out, Shop Out” was one of 13 events activists have planned from late February through the beginning of April in advance of this spring’s standardized tests for students in grades three through eight.

Long Island has been the epicenter of a movement to boycott the exams, which opponents say threaten to make education too test-centric and unfairly inform teachers’ job evaluations. Across New York, more than 200,000 students boycotted exams last spring, including more than 60,000 on Long Island.

In December, the state’s Board of Regents approved a four-year moratorium on using state test scores in any way that might jeopardize teachers’ jobs.

“Their message is, ‘Everything has changed,’ ” said Deutermann, the mother of a fourth-grader and seventh-grader in North Bellmore schools. “Our message is that nothing has changed, especially for children in the classroom.”

State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia has heard the concerns of parents, teachers and other stakeholders, her spokesman said in a statement in advance of Saturday’s event.

Jennifer Debler, 46, of Garden City said she wants her three children in public schools to have the kind of opportunities for creative learning that she said private school students have.

“I don’t want a test-based curriculum for our children. I want the same education that the elites get,” she said as she walked to take a group photo with other activists at the edge of the mall’s parking lot. “I want it for all children.”