Only Alternative for Some Students Sitting Out Standardized Tests: Do Nothing
Richard Hughes, the superintendent of Central Valley School District in upstate New York, is being haunted by two minivans and an S.U.V.
All three vehicles have been circulating around town with painted-on messages of protest. One message, “refuse NYS testing,” is directed at parents. But another is clearly aimed at Dr. Hughes and his school board: “Central Valley sit and stare policy,” it says, punctuated on either side by a frowny face.
“I’ve been inundated with emails saying: ‘How can you call yourself an educator? You should not be forcing kids to take tests,’ ” Dr. Hughes said.
With a growing number of children sitting out state tests this year, the energies of the so-called opt-out movement are now focusing not only on guaranteeing the ability of students to refuse the tests but also on what those students are allowed to do during the exams. Their targets are districts that require students to remain quietly in their classrooms and do nothing, or as opt-out advocates have labeled it, “sit and stare.”
While “sit and stare” policies can still be found in pockets around the country, efforts to combat them in New York appear to be working. More districts, including New York City’s, are offering backup activities on testing days, like time in the library, work sheets or simply allowing students to read to themselves. There are bills under consideration in both houses of the State Legislature that would require districts to provide alternatives.
But a few districts are sticking to the rule that students not filling in bubbles may only sit, think and, if they so choose, stare.
Logistically, some of those districts say that they do not have enough staff members to supervise alternative activities. But philosophically, even letting students sit in their seats and read for pleasure strikes some officials as unfair to students who are taking the exams.
“Our expectation was they were going to take the assessment,” said Brian Schmitt, superintendent of the Genesee Valley Central School District in western New York, which does not provide alternative activities. “We were not going to reward them by having them do something that other students may perceive as either fun or more interesting than taking the assessment, because that’s not fair to kids who were doing the right thing.”
Some of Mr. Schmitt’s fellow holdouts around the state have been besieged not only by minivans, but also by phone calls and emails, and websites listing them on a “wall of shame.”
Seth Turner, the superintendent of the Saugerties Central School District in the Hudson Valley, which did not provide alternate activities last year, said he received scores of emails and calls, more than 95 percent of which, he estimated, were from people who do not live in his district; he said the bulk came from Long Island, where the opt-out movement is strong. Many of the messages that Mr. Turner and other superintendents received, they said, likened the sit-and-stare policy to child abuse.
“It was absolutely horrific,” Mr. Turner said. “Anybody who is making that statement really is not familiar with what goes on with children who are victims of abuse.”
“You’re going to force a child to sit for an hour?” he continued. Growing up, he said, “that’s what I called church.”
Mr. Turner recently decided, however, that teachers could give refusing students academic materials like work sheets.
Friday is the last of six days of state testing, three for math and three for English, with each day’s exam lasting up to 90 minutes.
Parents of students who opt out say that is a long time for anybody to sit and do nothing. They see sit-and-stare policies as punishment for children whose parents are just trying to look out for them. Official numbers will not be available until the summer, but opt-out groups have estimated that more than 150,000 of the roughly one million eligible test takers sat out the tests this year, more than double the number from last year.
Those who support statewide testing say it is crucial to measuring the success of public education, especially for struggling schools in poor districts. But Jeanette Deutermann, who founded an opt-out group on Long Island, said that testing can stir intense passions in parents who see refusing as a necessary means of protecting their children from a system that focuses too much on standardized assessments.Only Alternative for Some Students Sitting Out Standardized Tests: Do Nothing - NYTimes.com: