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Sunday, May 26, 2019

NYC Public School Parents: Warning: stand-alone field tests ahead & how you can support opt-out bills in Legislature

NYC Public School Parents: Warning: stand-alone field tests ahead & how you can support opt-out bills in Legislature

Warning: stand-alone field tests ahead & how you can support opt-out bills in Legislature

Note: You can send letters to your state legislators in support of the Right to Opt Out of High-stake testing bills mentioned below, Senate bill S5394 and Assembly bill A7744, with the help of NYSAPE here.  The following is by Fred Smith, testing expert, focused on the upcoming stand-alone field tests. You can see which grade in your child's school is targeted for field tests and in which subject here.

As another test-burdened school year comes to an end, we still have extra exams to give massive numbers of children.  These tests are not mandated.  Parents don’t know about them.
They are known as stand-alone field tests (SAFT) and are being given so a commercial publisher can assemble next year’s ELA and math exams. 
The testing program and the need to find out how many Level 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s there are have become inexorable.  Only the test results are vacuous.
It’s time to sound an alarm bell about SAFT again to alert New York City public school parents about them and explain why they should exercise the right to opt their children out.
The New York State Education Department, under Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, has identified 869 schools in New York City this year to give the field tests to 91,565 students.  Here’s how the statewide and citywide picture looks.


The scope of this effort is vast.  The field tests began on May 20, when schools assigned to give computer-based tests (CBTs) could choose a day to administer them.  All schools CONTINUE READING: NYC Public School Parents: Warning: stand-alone field tests ahead & how you can support opt-out bills in Legislature