Most North Fork school districts saw a slight decline in the number of students opting out of this year’s English Language Arts exam, according to data collected from administrators and Newsday surveys over the past three weeks.
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Tag: opt out
The amount of students who refused to take state-mandated math assessments this week is similar to the English Language Arts opt-out rates in March, according to local school district officials.
Tuesday marked the first day of the controversial state-mandated testing at public schools across New York and the percentage of students who refused to sit for the exams in the Mattituck-Cutchogue school district slightly decreased compared to last year’s total opt-out numbers.
For the past few years, parents and educators have rallied against the state’s latest system of so-called high-stakes testing, which ties teacher evaluations to the controversial Common Core standards. Their principal strategy has been the opt-out movement, under which students refuse to take mandated assessment tests.
In response to the large numbers of students who have opted out of state-mandated testing in previous years, New York State education officials recently compromised by agreeing to hold off until 2020 on tying test results to teacher ratings.
The number of students opting out of state-mandated math assessments this year increased across the board on the North Fork, mirroring a trend seen last week with the required English Language Arts tests.
Continuing a trend seen since New York State started implementing the tests a few years ago, a large percentage of local students refused to take the state-mandated English Language Arts assessment this week, according to numbers provided by school officials.
Proposed legislation to allow school districts to opt out of Common Core without sacrificing federal funding is one step closer to fruition.
Only a portion of students were declared “proficient” in state math and English Language Arts exams this year, and local superintendents say they believe the assessments fail to accurately reflect student performance.
North Fork students’ state math and English Language Arts proficiency scores rose slightly this year overall, according to results of last spring’s assessments for students in grades 3 through 8 released Wednesday by the New York State Department of Education.