New York’s burgeoning “opt-out movement,” in which parents protest the decision to tie test scores to teacher evaluations through opting their children out of standardized testing, continues to gain steam, and has even turned national.
Parent frustrations with standardized testing have been burning for quite some time, but it was Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) January State of the State Address that fanned the flames. Cuomo laid out a controversial agenda for school reform, which included making students’ standardized test scores 50 percent of teacher evaluations, with the other half determined by outside evaluators’ and school officials’ observations.
In turn, teachers unions, which have long had a contentious relationship with Cuomo, organized with legislators and parents to oppose the proposal. The New York State United Teachers union encouraged parents to opt out of the tests, a move that has earned retaliation among administrators.
Some high-ranking school officials even have asked principals for names of teachers encouraging the opt-outs, and the state education department says there could be additional consequences for low-performing schools with a participation rate below 95 percent — a decrease in funding and more state oversight.
Cuomo took a hardline negotiating position. He refused to boost overall school funding by 4.8 percent, or nearly $1 billion in extra funding, unless legislators agreed to all of his reforms; if those reforms were not adopted, funding would only rise 1.7 percent. Assembly Democrats voted for the budget bill on April 1, but not before some of them vehemently disagreed with many of his reforms. One of this proposals, however, the education tax credit, which incentivized contributions to private school scholarship funds and public schools, was removed.
More than 150,000 students have opted out of the exams, according to the New York State United Teachers union spokesman Carl Korn, especially in suburban areas such as Long Island and Lower Hudson Valley, which may cost Cuomo political clout in the area because education is a sensitive personal matter for families across New York. On March 18, a Quinnipiac University poll reported Cuomo’s approval rating dropped to 50 percent, the lowest it’s been since he first took office.
The opt-out movement, which gained media attention in the past couple weeks, has spread to other states. New Jersey, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, Oregon, Wisconsin, and others states are joining the fray. The New Jersey Assembly voted to allow parents to let their children opt out of PARCC common core tests last month, and even required that schools organize activities for children who chose to opt out. In Indiana, Superintendent of the Year Rocky Killion advised parents to homeschool their children during the week of standardized testing. In this case, parents’ and teachers’ interests have aligned, since teachers argue that tying evaluations to tests is unfair and requires “teaching to the test,” and parents are unhappy with what they say is undue pressure placed on children to achieve high scores on these tests, on top of all of the other exams and homework required of them.
Advocates for test-focused education reform say tests are necessary to hold educators accountable for what they have or have not taught their students. Of course, many parents haven’t participated, in part because some are concerned with how opting out would affect their child’s future, or believe standardized testing is a necessary tool for measuring success. A report from High Achievement New York, a group that advocates in favor of the current state testing system, shows that districts with the most opt-outs tended to be wealthier, with a median income of $98,000.
The American Statistical Association advises against relying on any one piece of qualitative information in high-stakes decisions such as the hiring of teachers. Its April 2014 statement concludes that the use of tests as a measurement for performance could ignore teacher behaviors that contribute to longer-term benefits for students.
New York’s opt out movement is the culmination of years of frustration from teachers’ unions and advocacy groups, which argued that tying evaluations to tests is not the answer, saying education reform has to account for factors outside of teachers’ control, such as a districts’ poverty and what they call the state’s failure to address the former through more equitable funding throughout the state.
A 2014 report reflecting on fair funding of public schools across the nation, put together by Rutgers University professor Bruce Baker and the Education Law Center, gave New York an “F” for its funding distribution.
In 2007, after a 2006 court ruling in favor of Campaign for Fiscal Equity versus New York, lawmakers adopted a Foundation aid formula to more fairly distribute funding, but stopped in 2010. The Alliance for Quality Education has demanded the governor re-adopt the Foundation formula ever since.
The opt-outs are in part a reaction to years of education reform efforts that are focused on teacher evaluation through standardized tests and growing frustration with common core state standards, a voluntary set of standards implemented in 46 states and the District of Columbia.
Cuomo isn’t alone in high-profile battles with teachers unions over standardized testing and other education reforms. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have battled with teachers’ unions in the past few years as part of a broader education reform movement that focuses on test scores as a means of teacher evaluation. Recently, however, Christie began to compromise more with teachers’ unions, creating a commission to review tests given to public school students and lessen their influence on teacher evaluations. Emanuel has had a very contentious relationship with the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis — after teacher strikes and Emanuel’s push for a longer school day, as well as closures of low-performing schools.