Opting Out of High-Stakes Testing

Opting Out of High-Stakes Testing
September 16th, 2011
By Donald Bartalo ([email protected])

A petition to be delivered to: Governor Andrew Cuomo, the New York State Senate and Assembly, and the citizens of the State of New York.

We the undersigned parents/guardians, exercise our Free Speech Right as found in Article 1, Section 8 of the New York State Constitution: “Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects.” The subject that we have chosen to speak out against is standardized testing.

The State of New York, along with many states across the United States, has a complex system of standardized tests that are given to all public school students in grades 3-12. The scores from these standardized tests are used for everything from measuring student achievement, determining grade retention and high school graduation, comparing school districts on a statewide report card, and evaluating teachers and principals.

To quote from the New York State Education Law (Article 7-A, 340-4): “A test subject means an individual to whom a test is administered.” These test subjects are our children. There has never been a time in the history of the State of New York when so many standardized tests are being administered to so many test subjects who attend New York State public schools.

There is every reason to believe that the New York State Education Department and the Board of Regents will continue to be enthusiastic about the use of high-stakes standardized testing. We believe, however, just the opposite. We believe that the overuse of standardized testing has become so harmful to our children, teachers, and principals that we need to opt our children out of standardized testing. This is a drastic step, but the time has come for drastic measures.

We, the undersigned citizens, support parents/guardians in their beliefs about standardized testing and their effort to opt their public school-aged children out of standardized testing.