Check out the latest NPE video below with Jeanette Deutermann explaining with heartbreaking eloquence why she and thousands of other parents will be opting their children out of the New York state exams this spring.
Sample opt out letters are posted here; and here's a good FAQ dispelling the myth that your children could be subjected to a failing test score on their records or their schools suffer funding cuts or low accountability ratings as a result of their opting out. Here's a NYSAPE fact sheet on the same issue.
Instead, NYC DOE and astroturf organizations have put out lots of confusing and misleading information on this issue. Don't believe them. See what NYSED itself has said:
To comply with the federal law, one school academic accountability calculation still must be based on the percentage of all students who pass state tests. ...But New York's plan also creates a new "core subject performance index" that reflects the results only for the portion of students who actually take the state tests. If the result using the index calculation is better, that performance measure can be used to determine whether a school is targeted for additional funding and academic support.
"In essence, both of these measures are looked at," Schwartz [of NYSED] told the Regents. "...if we have schools that have high achievement but also have high rates of non-participation, those schools will not likely end up on our list of those schools that need to be focused upon."
In addition, parents' data privacy concerns should be even stronger given the recent, unexplained breach of NY students' personal information from Questar, the company that produces the NY State tests. And the state has still not implemented or enforced the 2014 student privacy law -- with many weaknesses in data privacy and security practices outstanding, as outlined in the letter we and NYSAPE sent to the NYSED Chief Privacy Officer last year.
Sample opt out letters are posted here; and here's a good FAQ dispelling the myth that your children could be subjected to a failing test score on their records or their schools suffer funding cuts or low accountability ratings as a result of their opting out. Here's a NYSAPE fact sheet on the same issue.
Instead, NYC DOE and astroturf organizations have put out lots of confusing and misleading information on this issue. Don't believe them. See what NYSED itself has said:
To comply with the federal law, one school academic accountability calculation still must be based on the percentage of all students who pass state tests. ...But New York's plan also creates a new "core subject performance index" that reflects the results only for the portion of students who actually take the state tests. If the result using the index calculation is better, that performance measure can be used to determine whether a school is targeted for additional funding and academic support.
"In essence, both of these measures are looked at," Schwartz [of NYSED] told the Regents. "...if we have schools that have high achievement but also have high rates of non-participation, those schools will not likely end up on our list of those schools that need to be focused upon."
In addition, parents' data privacy concerns should be even stronger given the recent, unexplained breach of NY students' personal information from Questar, the company that produces the NY State tests. And the state has still not implemented or enforced the 2014 student privacy law -- with many weaknesses in data privacy and security practices outstanding, as outlined in the letter we and NYSAPE sent to the NYSED Chief Privacy Officer last year.
Jeanette Deutermann | The True Cost of the Tests from S4E Media on Vimeo.
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