Why some students are refusing to take the Common Core test
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JUDY WOODRUFF: Testing for the Common Core learning standards in U.S. public schools began earlier this month. And just as a rebellion is brewing against the Common Core, there are now protests building against the national tests associated with them.
Reports of students refusing to take the tests are coming in daily, and if those numbers keep building, it could endanger the goals of the standards themselves.
Our special correspondent for education, John Merrow, has the story from New Jersey.
STUDENT: We’re live. We’re live.
JOHN MERROW: Something big is happening in New Jersey, and it’s being broadcast on YouTube.
STUDENT: If you’re, like, following us on Twitter or Instagram, make sure you use the hashtag #OccupyNPS.
JOHN MERROW: In Newark, high school students occupied the superintendent’s office for three days, one of their issues, the Common Core test.
STUDENT: This is a pretty big deal. We’re taking back our district.
TANAISA BROWN, Newark Students Union: Politicians actually get very nervous when they see how many people are against one thing. They have money power. They have political power, but we have people power.
JOHN MERROW: It’s happening in Montclair, where a protest group released this video.
WOMAN: We’re fighting back.
STUDENT: I’m trying to push back against the test because I’m not just a number and I’m not a dollar sign.
MAN: We are refusing the test. Refuse the test.
JOHN MERROW: And it’s happening in the state capital.
RAISA RUBIN-STANKIEWICZ, Student: In conclusion, the PARCC high-stakes standardized tests will hurt our students, teachers, and schools. That is why I am refusing the PARCC test.
When I heard about what happened in New York, how like 60,000 people opted out, and I thought, wow, that’s something we can do about it.
JOHN MERROW: PARCC is one of two national tests of the Common Core state standards being given to about 15 million students, starting with third-graders, in 28 states and Washington, D.C., this spring. The Common Core and the tests have their defenders.
MARCIA V. LYLES, Superintendent, Jersey City Public Schools: I think the Common Core state standards have upped the ante for everybody, that it is, indeed, more rigorous. So we needed a more rigorous assessment to address whether or not we were providing more rigorous instruction.
JOHN MERROW: But resistance to Common Core testing has been building, in Florida, New York, Washington, Colorado, and elsewhere, including New Jersey, which has 590 school districts, 1.4 million students, and, these days, anti-testing activity just about every night, often with strong language.
WOMAN: I’m willing to go as far as I have to go in order to get this done. I would be arrested because of this.
JOHN MERROW: Protesters are from across the spectrum and from opposite sides of the political aisle.
CAROLEE ADAMS, Eagle Forum: We don’t want a national school board. We really don’t.
JOHN MERROW: Carolee Adams is New Jersey president of the Eagle Forum, a conservative group.
CAROLEE ADAMS: When it comes to, perhaps, social issues, we may not agree, but, on this issue, we are shoulder to shoulder, parents, conservatives, progressives, the Why some students are refusing to take the Common Core test: