Work packets in Saugerties
In Saugerties, however, the mood was different. School board members there were vocal in their opposition to parents opting their kids out of the tests and the district has so far declined to disclose its opt-out numbers.
Saying it baffled her that parents are questioning testing, Saugerties school board trustee Angie Minew accused teachers’ unions of driving the increase in opt-outs. At the April 14 meeting of the Saugerties school board, she said “the teachers’ unions are encouraging civil disobedience and shamelessly using children to fight this battle for them.” She made this accusation after receiving a robocall from New York State United Teachers’ President Karen Magee advocating test refusal. Minew said her children did take the test, and claimed it was easy.
After thanking teachers whom she said behaved “professionally,” Minew went on to address “those educators who feel manipulating young children to challenge parents, become civil disobedient, I urge you to take a look at what the word ‘federal mandate’ means.” She suggested “maybe take a look at your own contract, possibly take a new career path.”
Minew said “your fight isn’t here. Your fight is in Albany.”
Parents had been critical of last year’s policy in Saugerties which required opted-out students to remain in the classroom with the test booklet on the desk in front of them for the six school days of testing — the so-called “sit and stare.”
The district’s answer was to provide work packets for students to complete, drawn up by teachers and administrators. At the April 14 school board meeting, Saugerties Superintendent Seth Turner presented the packets as a compromise between the previous practice and those of some other districts, which allowed students to read quietly in the classroom or another room. He called it a “Solomon-like decision.”
According to Assistant Superintendent Larry Mautone, some of these alternative activities were created as a collaborative effort, while others were created by individual teachers. Mary Garland, president of the Saugerties Teachers Association, said teachers had been asked to create assignments with “rigor” that were appropriate for the curriculum and age of the students. The packets do not count toward a student’s grade for the quarter.
Social media’s role, Cahill response
Countywide (Stop Common Core in Ulster County) and statewide (United to Counter the Core) Facebook pages seemed to serve to coalesce resistance and encourage refusing the tests.
“Make no mistake, this wave of civil disobedience is not just about Andrew Cuomo and his teacher evaluation plan,” posted United to Counter the Core co-founder Loy Gross on April 17. “Cuomo is the flavor-of-the-month in a long line of ill-prepared, ill-advised education reformers, each worse than the one before. … Hundreds of thousands of parents are not making political statements, they are looking at crying, defeated children around their kitchen tables and demanding meaningful change.”
According to United to Counter the Core’s most recent tally, compiled from media accounts across the state, more than 185,000 students were opted out of the ELA testing. The total number is likely higher, as that tally was from about 75 percent of the state’s school districts.
“I think it validates the point that’s been made by educators and experts, that standardized testing is not something that people are welcoming in terms of determining the quality of education,” Assemblyman Kevin Cahill said this week. “And that we’re seeing what amounts to a level of civil disobedience proves that there was a failure on the legislative and executive side this year drafting the budget proposal.”
Some legislators said they’d reluctantly voted in favor of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s budget earlier this month because, even though it meant approving an amended version of the governor’s controversial education reforms, it also included significant state aid increases. Among the original proposed reforms is a teacher evaluation system based half on student test scores, an increase in the length of time before a teacher is eligible for tenure, and the state takeover of failing schools and districts.
Cahill said the continued growth of the opt-out movement should serve as a wake-up call.
“It also signals to the Board of Regents, and to the chancellor, and to the governor, and to my colleagues who voted differently than I did on this proposal that we’d better go back to the drawing board,” he said. “It’s not up to the parents to fix the system of education, it’s up to the parents to have a system of education that they have faith in. It’s up to us to create that system. And we’re not doing that right now.”
Poll numbers
A Time Warner Cable/Siena College poll taken April 6-9 of 737 upstate registered voters found among those surveyed in the Hudson Valley substantial pushback against Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s school reforms. When asked about their level of agreement with assertion that his budget will move the state toward “an education system that rewards results, addresses challenges and demands accountability,” 58 percent of respondents said they disagreed, either somewhat or strongly. When it came to the governor’s gambit of tying his ideas, including changes to the teacher evaluation system putting more weight on standardized tests, to an increase in state funding, 71 percent of the Hudson Valley respondents said the Cuomo’s reforms and funding should be considered separately. But 66 percent agreed with the new rule stating districts must begin the dismissal process if a teacher is found “inadequate” by the new evaluation system three years in a row. Hudson Valley respondents overwhelmingly feel, according to the poll, that standardized tests should count for no more than 25 percent of a teacher’s score — 26 percent said test scores shouldn’t count at all, while 44 percent said they should count about 25 percent.
Ulster Publishing staff contributed to this report.
