Critics of the state’s testing regimen proudly pulled their kids out of exams Tuesday, saying the new more rigorous standards are causing unnecessary stress on students.
Opponents of the Common Core tests said that as many as 70% of students backed out from taking the exams.
Dudley Stewart said he realized he needed to allow his 8-year-old son, Spike, to ditch the exams when the boy listed “pass the reading test” as his top New Year’s resolution — before rock climbing and bungee jumping.
“These are 8-year-olds and 9-year-olds, and they’re stressed out and worried!” said Stewart, 42, whose son attends the third grade at Public School 69 in Jackson Heights, Queens. “I don’t want my child or any child to have to go through this type of pressure.”
In Brooklyn, three schools — PS 446 in Brownsville, Academy of Arts & Letters in Fort Greene, and the Brooklyn New School in Carroll Gardens — each had more than 70% of students opt out of the tests, according to the advocacy group NYCpublic.
In Manhattan, nearly 50% of students opted out at Hamilton Heights Elementary School and 75% didn’t take the tests at the Institute for Collaborative Education, said Jane Hirschmann of Time Out From Testing.
The number of students in the third to eighth grades to withdraw from the statewide English Language Arts tests was unclear because the Education Department didn’t respond to requests for exact numbers or for comment.
But City Councilman Daniel Dromm, chairman of the education committee, estimated 1,000 students refused to take the test — more than quadrupling last year’s total of 276. He said two other students opted out with Spike at PS 69.
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There are no official consequences for students choosing not to take the tests, which will be administered for about an hour a day through Thursday.
The math portion of the exam begins April 30 and runs through May 2.
Last week, the state Education Department defended the tests as “one of many tools that should be used to measure student growth and help inform instruction.”
But the high-stakes exams are simply too much for students to bear, said Dromm (D-Queens).
“There’s such pressure on (students) they get sick on the day of tests,” he said, adding that a constituent had said her kid was “nauseous” Tuesday morning at the prospect of taking the exam.
Hirschmann hoped that the number of students declining to take the tests would undermine Common Core’s main purpose — to provide uniform data for decisions regarding student promotions, student and teacher evaluations and bonuses for staffers.
“It’s going to be a real problem for the state,” said Hirschmann. “We’re trying to build a movement so they won’t try it next year. We’re done with your experiments.”
On Tuesday, critics of the state standards were relieved when Gov. Cuomo said students’ scores on the test would not be included on transcripts through 2018.
William Fletcher, who pulled his third-grade son from the tests at PS 446 in Brooklyn, said the emphasis on exams came at the expense of other learning.
“We refuse to take part in a test-score-driven education system that is hurting all children,” he said. “In third grade, children need music, art, and gym. But these get crowded out by the tests.”
Danny Katch, 39, opted his daughter out of the test after discussing it with her.
“My child is not a test score,” said Katch, whose child attends the third grade at PS 69. “It’s ridiculous and academically dishonest to not look at the whole child. . . . I’m very proud my daughter decided to take this stand.”
The Common Core standards have faced mounting criticism since a rocky rollout starting in 2010. Last year, teachers complained they hadn’t been fully trained how to teach the new standards — and that many didn’t receive textbooks and teaching materials for the exams until well into the school year.
On top of that, teachers said the new materials were riddled with errors. New York City parents were then stunned to see their children’s test scores had plummeted. Less than a third of students in the city scored a passing grade in both reading and math.
In January, Cuomo said the standards had caused “uncertainty, confusion and anxiety” and convened a panel to recommend “corrective action.”
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