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Overcast Teachers association supports right to opt out
As the opt-out movement picks up steam ahead of the first round of state assessments for third- through eighth-graders in English Language Arts, the Baldwin Teachers Association isn’t shying away from sharing its feeling about the exams.
In a letter sent last month to parents and guardians, the BTA said it would be inappropriate for a teacher to advise parents to keep their children out of the tests, but directed parents to groups strongly opposed to the exams and information about opting out.
“The Baldwin Teachers Association,” the letter read, “as well as its state affiliate NYSUT, fully supports parents’ right to choose what is best for their children and a parent’s right to ‘refuse’ the state standardized tests if the parent believes state testing is inappropriate and/or may be harmful to his or her child.”
Christopher Greer, a music teacher in the district for 16 years who now works at Plaza Elementary School, has been BTA president for the past four years. The Herald sat down with him recently to discuss the world of education.
When the ELA and math assessments are administered this month across New York, it will mark the third year of testing. The assessments came with the Common Core State Standards, which were put in place for the 2012-13 school year. This year’s ELA exam will be taken April 14-16, and the math portion will be given April 22-24. Last year, more than 110 students in Baldwin opted out.
“We have no problem with tests and standardized tests as they used to be, where we got the tests back in a reasonable amount of time, were able to see the answers, really see what a student struggled with and where we needed to drive the instruction moving forward,” Greer said. “Now we don’t get the score back until the next school year.”
He said he also took issue with Common Core’s introduction in 2012. “The implementation was botched,” Greer said. “It was rushed. The standards themselves aren’t the main problem; the main problem is that it was rushed and wasn’t rolled out properly.”
