Southold School District

Southold opposes field tests; Greenport to vote on statement

From left, Southold Superintendent David Gamberg, district clerk Patti DiGregorio and school board member John Crean at Wednesday's meeting. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo)
From left, Southold Superintendent David Gamberg, district clerk Patti DiGregorio and school board member John Crean at Wednesday’s meeting. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo)

The Southold school board has made an official statement opposing “field tests” tied to the controversial Common Core mandates.

During the school board’s meeting Wednesday, Superintendent David Gamberg said publishing companies that create the state assessments administer field tests to determine which questions could be valid on future tests.

“There has been an excessive amount of testing,” he said. “It is our strongly held belief that the nature of the field testing is compounding an already difficult problem.”

The board vote 3-0 in favor of a resolution stating the district opposes field testing. Scott Latham and Brian Tobin were absent.

School board president Paulette Ofrias said she’s in favor of Mr. Gamberg sending a copy of the resolution to the Board of Regents.

“It just shows we take it seriously,” she said.

Southold has passed other resolutions expressing the district’s displeasure with new education mandates.

In August 2013, the school board approved a resolution calling on state and federal officials to overhaul the current method of standardized testing tied to teacher evaluations known as the annual professional performance review, or APPR.

While Mr. Gamberg and the school board have agreed there are some good elements to Common Core, they’ve also been one of the more outspoken school districts on the North Fork to oppose the state’s mandate that ties teacher evaluations to state assessment scores.

In August, the school board approved a resolution calling on state and federal officials to overhaul the current method of standardized testing and New York’s teacher evaluation system.

Most notably, Southold denied it’s total portion of Race to the Top funds in protest of the mandates.

Mr. Gamberg is also the superintendent for the Greenport School District. That school board is expected to vote on a similar resolution Thursday.

The Greenport school board took no such action under the prior administration of former Superintendent Michael Comanda, who retired this summer.

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Scroll down to read the resolution.

Southold school board agenda, Dec. 17 2014