Badass Teachers Association Blog: Threats, bribes, deceit and glitches highlight another testing debacle in New York

Badass Teachers Association Blog: Threats, bribes, deceit and glitches highlight another testing debacle in New York

Threats, bribes, deceit and glitches highlight another testing debacle in New York

A version of this article originally appeared at The Progressive

In the ongoing national parent revolt against high-stakes standardized testing, New York has had the largest test refusal movement by far, with approximately one in five students refusing each year since 2015. The first round of this year’s grades 3-8 tests began last week amid fresh outrage over punitive new regulations and an official misinformation campaign designed to intimidate and confuse parents. The drama now unfolding in New York in response to this year’s testing troubles foreshadows a growing national clash over what really counts in our schools. 

Seeing their concerns ignored, New York parents began publicly sharing district letters showing threats, bribes, and false information. The chaos and contention was compounded by a large online system crash almost immediately after testing began April 2; reports emerged that the state’s computer-based testing platform would not let some students log on or submit tests they had worked on for hours. By day’s end, headlines from Long Island to Buffalo and everywhere between declared the online testing a “debacle”. 

According to the NY State Education Department, some 6,600 students were affected; all online testing was postponed one day as experts scrambled to troubleshoot the problem. Because a similar crashplagued New York schools last year (along with student data breaches), the NYS Council of School Superintendents, the largest state teachers’ union NY State United Teachers, and the NY State Parent CONTINUE READING: Badass Teachers Association Blog: Threats, bribes, deceit and glitches highlight another testing debacle in New York