FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 4, 2015
More information contact:
NYS Allies for Public Education www.nysape.org
NYSAPE Survey Shows New Yorkers Overwhelmingly
Reject
Common Core Standards, Tests & Evaluation
Policies
In
response to NYS Education Department’s AimHighNY survey on the Common Core that
many parents and teachers found excessively complex and not open to general
comments, New York State Allies for Public Education created a user-friendly
survey and posted it online between November 23 and November 30. Close to
12,000 New Yorkers filled out our survey in just a week’s time. According
to Commissioner Elia, only 5500 completed NYSED survey in three weeks’
time. Governor’s Common Core task force has received 1,798 submissions
since December 2, according to Politico.
The
respondents to the NYSAPE survey overwhelmingly reject
the Common Core standards, believe the state exams and test-based teacher
evaluation system are flawed, and that these reforms have worsened instruction
in both English Language Arts and Math at the classroom level.
Parents,
teachers, administrators, school board members and concerned NY residents all
took part in the NYSAPE survey. Of special note, 11 percent of our survey
respondents also completed NYSED’s survey and 32.9 percent attempted to
complete NYSED’s survey but gave up.
Of
those who responded to the NYSAPE survey, 70 percent oppose the Common Core
standards, 4 percent support them, 23 percent have concerns with them, and
3 percent are undecided. An even higher percentage --83 percent --
believe the Common Core standards in both ELA and Math have worsened
instruction. 83 percent also disagree with the shift to close reading
strategies.
Over
80 percent of respondents indicated that they believe ELA and Math standards in
grades K-3 are developmentally inappropriate for many students. Fewer than 4
percent of respondents say that the ELA and Math standards for grades 4-8 are
well designed.
For
grades 9-12, only 2 percent of respondents approve of the ELA and Math
Standards. Only 6.2 percent agree with the Common Core’s quota for
informational text versus literary text.
An
overwhelming number – 91 percent –say that the Common Core exams in
grades 3-8 are flawed, while fewer than 1 percent believe they are valid
or well-designed. Among those who find the tests to be flawed, many
believe the tests are developmentally inappropriate, too long, not useful for
assessing students with disabilities and/or English language learners and that
reading passages and questions are too difficult and confusing.
Of
our respondents, 54 percent indicated that high schools should use the previous
NYS Regents exams rather than new exams aligned to the Common Core standards,
while roughly 40 percent believe that students should not have to pass any high
stakes exams to graduate.
Those
who took the NYSAPE survey are nearly unanimous, at 96 percent, that test
scores should not be linked to principal or teacher evaluations. 86.5
percent say that the state should abandon the Common Core standards and return
to the New York’s former standards until educators can create better
ones.
The
full results of the survey are posted here: http://www.nysape.org/nysape-cc-survey-results.html
“NYSAPE’s
findings are in line with the poll results and most of the testimony to the
Governor’s Common Core Task Force. There is no way around this; the
Governor and the legislature must eliminate these Standards, revamp the tests,
and reverse the harmful education laws,” said Lisa Rudley, Westchester County
public school parent and NYSAPE founding member.
One
of the survey respondents said, “As a teacher who trained at Bank Street
College of Education, I find the standards developmentally inappropriate. As a
reading specialist, I find the kindergarten standards far too high in reading
and writing. As a parent, I am very concerned because I have a child who hates
reading because it was pushed so hard at his school.”
"The
results of the survey confirm that the vast majority of parents and teachers do
not approve of the Common Core, and oppose the rigid quotas for informational
text and ‘close reading’ strategies that have straitjacketed instruction
throughout the state. They want to abandon these standards, and return to our
previous ones until educators can craft better ones. We hope that state
policymakers, including the Commissioner, the Governor, the Board of Regents
and our legislators, will listen,” said Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of
Class Size Matters.
“The
tremendous response to NYSAPE's survey underscores that parents and educators
are eager to be heard. The fact that the Commissioner Elia could not create an
accessible survey only fuels concerns about her competence and willingness to
truly engage parents and practitioners,” said Bianca Tanis, Ulster County
public school parent, Rethinking Testing member and educator.
"Vice
Chancellor Bottar attempted to portray the appointment of Commissioner Elia as
a positive change, assuring the public that she would be able to
communicate more effectively with parents and educators to find common ground.
Vice Chancellor Bottar's continued poor judgement and complicity with the
failed reform agenda can no longer be tolerated; it is time for him to step
down," said Jessica McNair Oneida County public school parent, educator
and Opt Out Central NY founder.
NYSAPE,
a grassroots organization with over 50 parent and educator groups across the
state, is calling on parents to continue to opt out by refusing high-stakes testing
for the 2015-16 school year. Go to www.nysape.org for more details on how to affect
changes in education policies.
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