Forum’s speakers call for more test opposition

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A panel of opponents to state testing linked to Common Core standards denounced the tests and their effect on students at a forum at the Valley Stream American Legion hall on Nov. 18, and called for parents from diverse backgrounds to join their movement.

The panel featured Comsewogue Superintendent Joseph Rella, Hempstead teacher Elias Mestizo, Principal Jamaal A. Bowman of the Cornerstone Academy For Social Action in the Bronx, and Jeanette Deutermann, a parent who founded Long Island Opt-Out.

The speakers addressed a crowd of more than 200 people, most of whom were wearing red Valley Stream Teachers Association shirts. They decried the state Education Department for putting undue pressure on students, who they said spend too much time studying for tests that return them no real benefits.

Each speaker encouraged parents in attendance to put pressure on state lawmakers, to organize themselves and their friends, and to opt their children out of the tests.

Organizer Maribel Padin-Canestro, a parent advocate, said the forum was intended to engage parents from minority communities, especially Spanish-speaking families because of the tests’ implications for recently-arrived students who she said are at an increased disadvantage.