Union: School districts with high opt-out rates face penalty
New York State United Teachers is targeting proposed new financial penalties and other sanctions for school districts that do not maintain student test participation rates of at least 95 percent.
A statewide debate over how best to deal with schools where large numbers of students boycott state tests took a new turn this past week, as teachers union leaders charged that proposed new regulations represent a “direct frontal assault” on parents’ efforts to pull children out of the annual assessments.
The testing dispute resonates on Long Island, where more than 50 percent of eligible students in grades 3 through 8 opted out of state English Language Arts tests administered in mid-April. The region has emerged as an epicenter of the boycott movement over a six-year stretch.
Last week, the fight intensified, as New York State United Teachers or NYSUT, an Albany-based union umbrella group, issued a letter blasting the new regulations. Specifically, the union targeted proposed new financial penalties and other sanctions for school districts that do not maintain student test participation rates of at least 95 percent.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, makes a speech during a demonstration on Friday in Oyster Bay. Photo Credit: Michael Owens
The great majority of districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties do not meet that standard, set by federal law.
The letter was addressed to state Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, who later said during a Newsday interview that NYSUT and other educational groups had been consulted before regulations were drafted.
The regulations would restrict the way that penalized districts spend federal Title I dollars, by requiring them to set aside money to be used in encouraging greater student test participation, according to union analysts who have reviewed the 95-page regulatory document.
In addition, analysts said, the proposed rules would change the way test-participation rates are factored into schools’ overall academic ratings, making it more likely that schools would be Continue reading: Union: School districts with high opt-out rates face penalty | Newsday:
