Parents, educators decry testing at forum

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Now in their third year, New York’s Common Core Learning Standards-aligned assessment tests for third- to eighth-grade students are as unpopular as ever.

On March 31, a crowd of roughly 150 people, mostly parents and teachers in Bellmore and Merrick, packed the auditorium at Brookside School in North Merrick for a forum on the state’s education policies. Organizers changed the venue from the Merrick Road Park golf course clubhouse to accommodate the expected turnout. There was not a parking spot to be found at the school.

Attendees came to hear Dr. Michael Hynes, superintendent of the Patchogue-Medford School District; Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in Rockville Centre; Jeanette Deutermann, a North Bellmore mother and founder of New York State Allies for Public Education and the Long Island Opt Out Facebook page; and Marla Kilfoyle, a leader of the activist organization Badass Teachers Association, discuss the English and math tests and other hot-button issues in New York public schools, from reforms of curricula to teachers and principals’ evaluations.

The speakers characterized the tests as developmentally inappropriate in design and onerous for students and teachers. Most described the changes as part of efforts by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state education leaders to seize control from school districts and push charter schools. Cuomo has advocated for students’ test scores to weigh more heavily in the evaluations.

Burris said that educators “are being ignored.” “There are some very, very wealthy people who are giving a lot of money … to people in Albany, especially the governor,” Burris said. “A lot of them, I think, see what a wonderful world it would be if there weren’t public schools anymore, and taxes were lower, and if there weren’t unions … But somehow it just doesn’t feel like a democracy any more. The only vote that you really have at this point is to opt your kids out.”

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