Springville Journal, NY - More than 60 students from the Springville-Griffith Institute School District sat out elementary and intermediate-level mandated state testing this week, as parents pulled their students out of the local school, in protest of the mandated English Language Arts tests. Springville resident Chris Cerrone, who removed his fourth grade daughter from the testing, said that he and his fellow parents are taking their students out of the tests, in an effort to express their displeasure with the effect standardized testing has, on their children's education.
"New York state has no provision for opting out of the tests, so we have elected to boycott the tests," Cerrone said. "Schools are supposed to test every student, with the exception of those with severe disabilities. We parents are seeing that education has gotten to the point, now, where these tests are driving all instruction."
According to WNY for Public Ed, a website created by New York state parents, to disseminate information about standardized testing and the boycott, standardized tests are making up 25 percent of students' academic year and requiring students to "teach to the test."
The New York State Department of Education reported that students who do not take the tests and do not make up the tests, during a designated make-up period, have their scores recorded as "invalid," so they do not count for the school or against the individual.
The S-GI school board passed a resolution that "calls upon members of the New York State Legislature and the New York State Education Department to seek legislation and regulatory practices, that will take immediate action to eliminate mandated, stand-alone field testing practices in New York state."
According to that resolution, mandated state tests overly tax faculty, who must differentiate instruction for students who are or are not achieving goals; administrators, who must support the educators; students, who "are committed to learning that is challenging, tied to real world issues, open to divergent cultures and meaningful problem solving" and the community, by directing funds away from other programs.
The resolution further stated that "the plethora of NYS summative assessments, APPR assessments and now field testing requirements continually disrupt classroom instruction, to promote a system of accountability that detracts from the quality, essence and joy of true, educational growth and progress."
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