Big Education Ape: Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 4/18/15

Special Nite Cap - Catch Up on Today's Post 4/18/15

Special Nite Cap 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

Elect an Educator 

Candidate District 1 Louisiana Board of Elementary & Secondary Education 

ELECT LEE BARRIOS

Education, Education, Education! Wake Up America We Have a Problem! 04/19 by Coffee Party USA | Politics Podcasts

Education, Education, Education! Wake Up America We Have a Problem! 04/19 by Coffee Party USA | Politics Podcasts: Education, Education, Education! Wake Up America We Have a Problem!Smart Options & Common Core. A replay of my discussion with Victoria Young, author of Education’s Missing Ingredient: What Parents Can Tell Educators (2009) and, The Crucial Voice of the People, Past and Present (2

1 by mike simpson / 1h 

With A Brooklyn Accent: Test Resistance- A Movement that Can't Be Suppressed

With A Brooklyn Accent: Test Resistance- A Movement that Can't Be Suppressed: Test Resistance- A Movement that Can't Be SuppressedTest Resistance has become one of the major grass roots movements in the nation. Long mocked and ridiculed by the media, ignored by politicians, it is now so large it has been covered in virtually every major national news outlet from the NY Times to the Wall Street Jou

1 by mike simpson / 6h 

The Teaching Profession | Deborah Meier on Education

The Teaching Profession | Deborah Meier on Education: The Teaching ProfessionPosted on April 18, 2015 by debmeierDear readers,I am off to Chicago for the tail end of AERA, for a Save our Schools meeting and for the second annual Network for Public Education gathering and, most importantly, to visit friends from “the old days.” My three children were born in Chicago, I started to teach there, and o

by mike simpson / 7h 

Little Rock Superintendent Dexter Suggs: Book Author?? | deutsch29

Little Rock Superintendent Dexter Suggs: Book Author?? | deutsch29: Little Rock Superintendent Dexter Suggs: Book Author??Little Rock Superintendent Dexter Suggs has accomplished something astounding:He plagiarized hefty chunks of his 2009 dissertation from at least four sources(three other dissertations and a Milken Foundation research report)– and he got away with it for six years.The good news

1 by mike simpson / 7h 

Wendy Lecker: Charter schools -- civil rights rhetoric vs. reality - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: Charter schools -- civil rights rhetoric vs. reality - StamfordAdvocate: Wendy Lecker: Charter schools -- civil rights rhetoric vs. realityEducation "reformers" often proclaim they are carrying on the tradition of great civil rights leaders, employing the rhetoric of that movement while in reality pushing measures that exacerbate inequality and impact most harshly on childr

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

CURMUDGUCATION: Living in Dialogue, Teacher Voices, and The NEA 360 Report

CURMUDGUCATION: Living in Dialogue, Teacher Voices, and The NEA 360 Report:Living in Dialogue, Teacher Voices, and The NEA 360 ReportAt his blog Living in Dialogue, Anthony Cody has published an important series of articles about the creation of NEA's 360 report. Taken together, the articles create a picture of the contentious and fraught (depending on your perspective) process involved in creatin

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Opt-Out Movement Is Growing | PopularResistance.Org

Opt-Out Movement Is Growing | PopularResistance.Org: Opt-Out Movement Is Growing As students wrapped up this week’s state English exams, advocates said more city parents than ever refused to let their children take the tests at schools with active “opt-out” movements, while other parents brought the boycott to schools that are new to the cause.In District 15, Brooklyn’s opt-out hotspot, P.S. 321 s

1 by mike simpson / 8h 

Tentative settlement reached between teachers and L.A. Unified - LA Times

Tentative settlement reached between teachers and L.A. Unified - LA Times: Tentative settlement reached between teachers and L.A. Unified The L.A. Unified School District and the teachers union reached a tentative contract settlement Friday night for a three-year deal that includes a 10% salary increase over two years. There also are terms affecting class sizes, the number of counselors at schools

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Common Core Means No Child Left Untested | Alan Singer

Common Core Means No Child Left Untested | Alan Singer: Common Core Means No Child Left Untested After the first day of New York State's high-stakes Common Core aligned standardized testing, Newsday reported, "Thousands of Long Island elementary and middle school students -- in record numbers in some districts -- refused to take the state's English Language Arts exam." According to the R

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Chicago Teachers Union | Latest CPS Scandal Highlights Chicago’s Need for Democratically Elected, Representative School Board

Chicago Teachers Union | Latest CPS Scandal Highlights Chicago’s Need for Democratically Elected, Representative School Board: Latest CPS Scandal Highlights Chicago’s Need for Democratically Elected, Representative School BoardBY CTU COMMUNICATIONS  |  04/16/2015CHICAGO—The federal investigation of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s role in a no-bid $20.5 m

1 by mike simpson / 9h 

Drastic cuts to suburban Detroit school district

Drastic cuts to suburban Detroit school district - World Socialist Web Site: Drastic cuts to suburban Detroit school districtThe suburban Detroit, Michigan city of Hazel Park is laying off nearly a quarter of its school district staff and slashing the pay of the remaining teachers and support personnel.The “inner-ring” Detroit suburb was established as a bedroom community of autoworkers in the 194

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny | Miami Herald Miami Herald

South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutiny | Miami Herald Miami Herald: South Miami-based charter school management company under federal scrutinyThe state’s largest charter school management company has come under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Education for potential conflicts of interests in its business practices, federal authorities have confirmed.The Edu

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

This Article May Be Illegal – Lifting the Veil of Silence on Standardized Testing | gadflyonthewallblog

This Article May Be Illegal – Lifting the Veil of Silence on Standardized Testing | gadflyonthewallblog: This Article May Be Illegal – Lifting the Veil of Silence on Standardized Testing Warning!What you are about to read may be a criminal act.I may have broken the law by putting this information out there.Edward Snowden leaked data about civilian surveillance. Chelsea Manning released top secret

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

Applause for No Child Left Behind rewrite, but concerns remain - Yahoo News

Applause for No Child Left Behind rewrite, but concerns remain - Yahoo News: Applause for No Child Left Behind rewrite, but concerns remainThe Senate bill would continue to require some current levels of testing, but it would allow states to set up their own accountability systems.A bipartisan Senate bill to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Lef

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

Opt-out movement accelerates amid Common Core testing - Yahoo News

Opt-out movement accelerates amid Common Core testing - Yahoo News: Opt-out movement accelerates amid Common Core testingATLANTA (AP) — Thousands of students are opting out of new standardized tests aligned to the Common Core standards, defying the latest attempt by states to improve academic performance.Related StoriesThousands likely to sit out New York English, math tests Associated PressMore S

by mike simpson / 10h 

School districts, parents at odds over breakfast in class - Yahoo News

School districts, parents at odds over breakfast in class - Yahoo News: School districts, parents at odds over breakfast in class LOS ANGELES (AP) — The number of breakfasts served in the nation's schools has doubled in the last two decades, a surge driven largely by a change in how districts deliver the food.Instead of providing low-income students free or reduced-price meals in the cafeteria, th

by mike simpson / 10h 

There's a parenting trend that's taken over the US, and it's changing children everywhere - Yahoo Finance

There's a parenting trend that's taken over the US, and it's changing children everywhere - Yahoo Finance: There's a parenting trend that's taken over the US, and it's changing children everywhereWhat's happening here?The Economist reports that in the US, wealthy parents have a tendency toward becoming "helicopters," constantly buzzing about their children, ferrying them from one extracu

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

School vouchers in Milwaukee, religious freedom and discrimination

School vouchers in Milwaukee, religious freedom and discrimination: School vouchers in Milwaukee, religious freedom and discriminationAs the recent Indiana controversy has made clear, anti-gay bigotry is no longer publicly acceptable even when cloaked with rhetoric of religious freedom.It's a lesson that, sooner or later, Wisconsin will have to confront. But not because the state has a law similar

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

Teachers' union, student group fights Newark's designation of 9 struggling schools | NJ.com

Teachers' union, student group fights Newark's designation of 9 struggling schools | NJ.com: Teachers' union, student group fights Newark's designation of 9 struggling schools NEWARK — Newark Public Schools announced this week that nine schools will become "turnaround schools" during the next school year in an effort to curb struggling performance.The designation will mean that teachers

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

Senator Murray: 'No Child Left Behind' Might Get Left Behind | KPLU News for Seattle and the Northwest

Senator Murray: 'No Child Left Behind' Might Get Left Behind | KPLU News for Seattle and the Northwest: Senator Murray: 'No Child Left Behind' Might Get Left BehindU.S. Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., smiles at a press conference at Franklin High School in Seattle on April 17, 2015.KYLE STOKES KPLUKYLE STOKES KPLUListenListening...1:28A U.S. Senate committee advanced a bill to re-write the federal

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

Earl Nissen: A nightmare of school reform in New Mexico - Silver City Sun-News

Earl Nissen: A nightmare of school reform in New Mexico - Silver City Sun-News: Earl Nissen: A nightmare of school reform in New MexicoI just had the worst nightmare and needed to write about it.It is February 1, 2017. President Jeb Bush just appointed Andy Nunez as secretary of interior because of his strong statement on making wolves extinct. Susana Martinez was made secretary of state because o

1 by mike simpson / 10h 

We’re teaching our kids wrong: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates do not have the answers - Salon.com

We’re teaching our kids wrong: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates do not have the answers - Salon.com: We’re teaching our kids wrong: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates do not have the answersOur kids worship wealth and celebrities. We've lost track of school's real purpose -- exciting the mindBill Gates, Steve Jobs (Credit: AP/Bebeto Matthews/Dima Gavrysh) Excerpted from "The End of the Rainbow: How Educating

by mike simpson / 11h 

Welcome to the Matrix: The New York State Board of Regents Begins to Create Yet Another New Teacher Evaluation Plan – By June 30th. | Ed In The Apple

Welcome to the Matrix: The New York State Board of Regents Begins to Create Yet Another New Teacher Evaluation Plan – By June 30th. | Ed In The Apple: Welcome to the Matrix: The New York State Board of Regents Begins to Create Yet Another New Teacher Evaluation Plan – By June 30th.Posted on April 17, 2015 | 3 CommentsOn Monday, April 13th the members of the Board of Regents and a packed audience l

1 by mike simpson / 11h 

YESTERDAY

VP Jesse Sharkey on leave of absence taken by CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett

Chicago Teachers Union | VP Jesse Sharkey on leave of absence taken by CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett: VP Jesse Sharkey on leave of absence taken by CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-BennettBY CTU COMMUNICATION  |  04/17/2015CHICAGO—Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey released the following statement today regarding the leave of absence taken by Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett in

2 by mike simpson / 21h 

Big Education Ape: Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 4/17/15

Special Nite Cap - Catch Up on Today's Post 4/17/15Special Nite Cap CORPORATE ED REFORMElect an Educator Candidate District 1 Louisiana Board of Elementary & Secondary Education ELECT LEE BARRIOSThe Auto-Tuning of Teacher Voices: VIVA and the NEA 360° Report on Education Accountability - Living in DialogueThe Auto-Tuning of Teacher Voices: VIVA and the NEA 360° Report on Education Accountabili

2 by mike simpson / 23h 

2015 National Conference – Chicago

The Countdown to Chicago Has Begun!

The Network For Public Education | 2015 National Conference – Chicago 

http://bit.ly/1FQFcQM

Education, Education, Education! Wake Up America We Have a Problem! 04/19 by Coffee Party USA | Politics Podcasts

Education, Education, Education! Wake Up America We Have a Problem! 04/19 by Coffee Party USA | Politics Podcasts:

Education, Education, Education! Wake Up America We Have a Problem!

Smart Options & Common Core. A replay of my discussion with Victoria Young, author of Education’s Missing Ingredient: What Parents Can Tell Educators (2009) and, The Crucial Voice of the People, Past and Present (2012). Victoria has exposed the truths about this country's education debacle as well as any person I have come across.  Her honesty is absolute and her research transparent and revealing. Her activism is tireless. We cover the FACTS about Testing and also Common Core and the condition of education presently in our schools. "We know this is how America does business, but, are we really willing to accept the risk associated with having the education-industrial complex make the rules for how America “transforms” public education?" Please join us. Long time Activist, Coffee Party Director, Journalist and Radio Host, Bobby Rodrigo's "I Take LIBERTY With My Coffee" on Coffee Party USA Radio every Sunday morning at 8:30AM. Advocating engagement and coalitions Bobby points out that the Constitution is the Rule of Law in our land and why it should remain so. Money in Politics, the Political Party Machine and partisan blind allegiance is on full display as he advocates against the erosion of our Constitutional Protections in the name of corruption and tyranny. "If we focused on following the Constitution we would solve many of the ills of our society.”  Offering a long list of guests from Political Organizations, Activism, Media and Artists Bobby invites you to join him every Sunday morning at 8:30AM on Coffee Party USA Radio.Education, Education, Education! Wake Up America We Have a Problem! 04/19 by Coffee Party USA | Politics Podcasts: 

With A Brooklyn Accent: Test Resistance- A Movement that Can't Be Suppressed

With A Brooklyn Accent: Test Resistance- A Movement that Can't Be Suppressed:

Test Resistance- A Movement that Can't Be Suppressed

Test Resistance has become one of the major grass roots movements in the nation. Long mocked and ridiculed by the media, ignored by politicians, it is now so large it has been covered in virtually every major national news outlet from the NY Times to the Wall Street Journal to USA Today. The incredible size and energy of the resistance in New York state, with major activity in hundreds of school districts, shows how much the overuse and misuse of testing has enraged and frightened parents, students and teachers. This uprising, having no major funding source, controlled by no powerful organizations, communicated largely by social media and word of mouth, shows no signs of ebbing because it has a profound sense of purpose, and a deep moral conviction that stems from the defense of children and their well being. Trying to suppress it will backfire. It will only diminish when politicians reduce levels of testing in schools which have reached abusive proportions and have crowded out the activities which make education most meaningful. Since most elected officials have not gotten the message, we can expect this movement to grow for years to come. History is being made before our eyes. And democracy revitalized in the process.



With A Brooklyn Accent: Test Resistance- A Movement that Can't Be Suppressed:

The Teaching Profession | Deborah Meier on Education

The Teaching Profession | Deborah Meier on Education:

The Teaching Profession

Posted on April 18, 2015 by debmeier

Dear readers,

I am off to Chicago for the tail end of AERA, for a Save our Schools meeting and for the second annual Network for Public Education gathering and, most importantly, to visit friends from “the old days.” My three children were born in Chicago, I started to teach there, and only left… let me see… fifty years ago! Can that be??

As I was packing I ran across an unusual piece in the April 15th Education Week, by Jack Schneider, at the College of Holy Cross in Massacheusetts.  I am going to read him more often.

Why?

He is the first writer on education reform who mentions the issue of “downtime.” He has five concerns about the profession (?) of teaching which even the unions don’t seem to really get: (1) Lack of downtime; (2) workload—for high school teachers up to 150 students, with frequent turnover; 3) Lack of the kind of autonomy that often defines professionalism; 4)  Structural isolation; 5) Not much feedback; none from colleagues.

But what astounded me most was what he put Number One: time to plan, prepare, and reflect. Time to collaborate. When I would hear folks demand MORE homework I would wonder—what kind of teacher time does that require. In elementary schools, with only The Teaching Profession | Deborah Meier on Education:

Little Rock Superintendent Dexter Suggs: Book Author?? | deutsch29

Little Rock Superintendent Dexter Suggs: Book Author?? | deutsch29:

Little Rock Superintendent Dexter Suggs: Book Author??

Little Rock Superintendent Dexter Suggs has accomplished something astounding:

He plagiarized hefty chunks of his 2009 dissertation from at least four sources(three other dissertations and a Milken Foundation research report)– and he got away with it for six years.

The good news is that Suggs did pass his February 2013 reference check for his employment with the Little Rock Schools District with flying colors.

He was even a 2007 Milken Foundation award winner– the one identified nonprofit from which he stole published material and passed off as his own in 2009.

Ironically, Suggs’ reference check identifies him as “a fast learner and capable of adapting to any setting.” If stealing the work of others and slapping it into a document with Suggs’ name on it counts as “adapting,” well, he sure did adapt.

Suggs even writes as much about himself in his letter of application:

My education and most recent background have given me the ability to adapt to any situation and learn quickly.

Apparently Suggs “learned” that dissertations take a lot of work and that lifting the work of others is just, well, easier.

That same Little Rock reference check also adds that Suggs “values/exhibits high moral values.”

Interestingly, the Little Rock Board of Education asked Suggs to respond to the following question about his ethics, and Suggs dodged any mention of ethics in his response. In his reply, Suggs doesn’t even use the word, “ethics” (click on image to enlarge):

Apparently this Suggs’ omission of detailed discussion of his own ethics passed right by the approving Little Rock Board of Education.

However, the reminder of Suggs’ application did include at least one hint of his ethics, specifically, his intent to embellish his perceived accomplishments.

One Suggs accolade that caught my particular attention was Suggs as a “book author”:

Described as having a very strong background in curriculum and instruction with exceptional skills and understanding in the area of instructional technology (published books/articles in area of instructional technology and integration into the classroom) 

Indeed, Suggs does identify himself as a book author (not “books,” but “book”),and it comes as no surprise that this book has the same title as his largely-stolen dissertation:

Book Author: The Impact of Middle School Principal Leadership on the Integration of Technology in Selected Middle Schools within the Indianapolis Public School District, @ Google Books

So, I looked up the entry on Google Books and found it to befound it to be nothing Little Rock Superintendent Dexter Suggs: Book Author?? | deutsch29:

Wendy Lecker: Charter schools -- civil rights rhetoric vs. reality - StamfordAdvocate

Wendy Lecker: Charter schools -- civil rights rhetoric vs. reality - StamfordAdvocate:

Wendy Lecker: Charter schools -- civil rights rhetoric vs. reality

Education "reformers" often proclaim they are carrying on the tradition of great civil rights leaders, employing the rhetoric of that movement while in reality pushing measures that exacerbate inequality and impact most harshly on children and communities of color-like school closures, privatization, and over-testing. Last week, noted civil rights expert Gary Orfield, of UCLA's Civil Rights Project, issued a report on Connecticut school integration that included an indictment of the practices of Connecticut's most-practiced purveyors of civil rights doublespeak -- charter schools. The report also called out state officials for their willful blindness to charter school practices.

The report, titled "Connecticut School Integration," praised the state for some of the strides made in desegregating schools. However, it noted the well-documented "hyper-segregation" of charter schools, which undermines Connecticut's progress on integration. The report further remarked that national education policies, including the expansion of charter schools, ignore race and poverty and have "consistently failed" to meet the goal of improving education for our neediest children.

Connecticut law on segregation is far-reaching. While the federal constitution only prevents intentional segregation, our Supreme Court, in the 1996 decision in Sheff v. O'Neill, prohibited "unorchestrated," i.e. de facto segregation. Thus, state officials have an affirmative obligation not just to prevent intentional segregation, but to eliminate even unintentional segregation.

Most Connecticut charters are intensely segregated. They routinely fail to serve English Language Learners, students with disabilities and often our most impoverished students.

Yet, as the Civil Rights Project writes, Connecticut state officials have refused to do anything to stem the tide of charter school segregation. The report observes that the education commissioner could require changes in a charter if that school does not make measurable progress in reducing racial, ethnic and economic isolation. It remarks that the state board could make this goal a prerequisite to granting a charter. Yet, as the report goes on to note, these state officials, those with the express obligation to reduce segregation, have consistently chosen to do nothing to prevent charter school segregation and its effects, including exacerbating racial, ethnic and economic imbalance in the host school districts.

Indeed, one wonders if Connecticut officials had forced Hartford's charters to abide by desegregation policies all along, would the city have reached its Sheff goals long ago, saving the state millions of dollars?

School integration is fundamental to advancing the democratic purpose of education. As the court noted in the Sheff decision: "If children of different races and economic and social groups have no opportunity to know each other and to live together in school, they cannot be expected to gain the understanding and mutual respect necessary for the cohesion of our society."

Decades of evidence prove that school integration achieves this goal, reducing stereotypes and enabling adults to function successfully in a variety of settings. The benefits of school integration are more lasting and meaningful than the empty pursuit of higher test scores.

In 1996, our highest court clearly articulated the state's responsibility to reduce segregation. Yet almost 20 years later, state officials allow charter school segregation to flourish. The State Board of Education continually rubber-stamps charter applications, trampling community opposition, and ignoring their duty to prevent charter school segregation and over-concentration. Even a new policy the state board announced, which applies to charter renewals only and not initial approvals, fails to require that charters serve the same students that their host district public schools serve.

This session, the legislature's Education Committee considered a bill that would have placed a moratorium on charter school approvals. Yet, our political leaders did not even have the will to move this bill out of committee. And now the governor wants the legislature to fund new charters while refusing to provide public schools with any ECS increase.

In his report, Dr. Orfield exhorts the state to bring charter schools in line with Connecticut's Wendy Lecker: Charter schools -- civil rights rhetoric vs. reality - StamfordAdvocate:

CURMUDGUCATION: Living in Dialogue, Teacher Voices, and The NEA 360 Report

CURMUDGUCATION: Living in Dialogue, Teacher Voices, and The NEA 360 Report:

Living in Dialogue, Teacher Voices, and The NEA 360 Report

At his blog Living in Dialogue, Anthony Cody has published an important series of articles about the creation of NEA's 360 report. Taken together, the articles create a picture of the contentious and fraught (depending on your perspective) process involved in creating the report. They are also a primer in how an attempt to include teacher voices can turn into something else entirely (Cody's leading metaphor of auto-tuning is exceptionally apt).

The report was managed by VIVA, and was intended to be a response to this question:

A wide body of research suggests that instructional quality has an important impact on student learning and development, but is not the only major factor. Are we including appropriate measures and indicators in today’s student accountability systems? How should responsibility for students’ education be assigned and measured at all levels of the education system? How should teachers be supported to provide the best possible education in every classroom? Who should be responsible for providing the resources to create a safe and equitable learning environment for all students?

VIVA collected responses from 953 members, and the selected (through a "proprietary algorithm") seventeen leaderly teachers who were given the job of turning those responses into a report. What Cody presents on the blog is a series of reflections by several of those seventeen teachers.

Start with this article by Cody:

The Auto-Tuning of Teacher Voices: VIVA and the NEA 360 Report on Educational Accountability

And then move on through the full package:

It’s Time to Speak Out: Comparing Reports, by Petra Schmid-Riggins
Using Our Teacher Voices: the Fight to Be Heard, by Amanda Koonlaba
Teachers Speak Out, Then Get Schooled, by Rachel Rich.
Let All Teachers’ Voices Be Heard, by Nancy Kunsman.
We Must Create Avenues for Authentic Teacher Voices to be Heard, by Enid Hutchinson.
The Process and the Report: What Went Wrong, by Joy Peters.

There are several different viewpoints represented here, but a picture of the events that led to a softening, editing, edge-smoothing, teacher-shushing rewrite of the report do slowly emerge. It is riveting reading, though for anyone who has ever tried to produce a report with a committee and for management that has something in particular in mind, much will ring true and familiar.

The package of essays is a bit frustrating in its lack, with one exception, of hard specifics. What exactly was edited out and what exactly was it turned into? That part is not as clear as it might be. But the essays are united in their very personal voices; these six individuals will tell you exactly what it felt like to them to be involved, and I found that helpful. Any attempt to create some sort of objective history would have left me searching for and wondering about personal perspectives.

Ultimately how it all happened is more important than what exactly resulted, because the 360 CURMUDGUCATION: Living in Dialogue, Teacher Voices, and The NEA 360 Report:

Opt-Out Movement Is Growing | PopularResistance.Org

Opt-Out Movement Is Growing | PopularResistance.Org:

Opt-Out Movement Is Growing

 As students wrapped up this week’s state English exams, advocates said more city parents than ever refused to let their children take the tests at schools with active “opt-out” movements, while other parents brought the boycott to schools that are new to the cause.

In District 15, Brooklyn’s opt-out hotspot, P.S. 321 saw its refusal rate rocket from about 4 percent last year to 36 percent this year, and P.S. 58 went from one boycotter to 50, parents and teachers said. Meanwhile, in southeast Brooklyn, an area not usually associated with anti-testing fervor, 10 students for the first time handed in opt-out letters at P.S. 203.

“It’s small,” said parent Charmaine Dixon, “but it’s big for us, because it’s never happened before.”

Advocates were still gathering city opt-out numbers Thursday, and while some predicted an increase from last year’s total of about 1,900 families that formally refused the exams, they will still represent a tiny fraction of the roughly 420,000 city test-takers. A spokeswoman said the education department would not have a final opt-out count until the tests, which are given in grades three through eight, are “fully processed.” (Students take the math tests next week.)

The city’s refusal rate will also be dwarfed by the percentages in several suburban and upstate districts, where some reports said the majority of students sat out the tests. Across the state, more than 155,000 students out of about 1.1 million eligible test-takers may have refused this week’s exams, according to an unofficial tally Thursday morning by the group United to Counter the Core, which opposes the Common Core standards and their assessments. Last year, 49,000 students did not take the English tests, according to state officials.

While noting the city’s comparatively small numbers, advocates stressed that the refusal movement has spread outside Brooklyn and Manhattan’s liberal bastions to a smattering of schools in other parts of the city, sometimes despite resistance from principals and teachers. Advocates, parents, and teachers said the growth reflects some parent’s long-standing wariness about the value and validity of standardized tests, which hardened this year after Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed tying teachers’ ratings even more closely to students’ scores.

They added that some parents decided it was safer to boycott the tests this year following city policy changes that shrank the role of test scores in decisions to promote students to the next grade or admit them to certain middle schools. Still, the advocates acknowledged that the eye-popping opt-out figures from other parts of the state made them reluctant to release their latest citywide counts.

“Part of the apprehension,” said parent and opt-out organizer Janine Sopp, “is that our numbers are not going to be Long Island numbers.”

As some city schools dived even deeper into the refusal waters this year — for example, the Earth School in the East Village went from 52 to 72 percent of students sitting out the exams, a teacher said — others tried dipping in their toes. Nine schools out of 100 that were contacted in the Bronx and Staten Island reported having parents opt out for the first time this year, according to Jody Alperin, a parent member of the group NYC Opt Out. (Not all the schools responded.)

Still, the vast majority of students took the tests. In some cases, parents worried that skipping the exams could keep their children from getting into selective schools. Despite the policy change, middle schools with admission policies can still base up to 49 percent of student rankings on their scores — and some parents fear that scores weigh even more heavily in practice.

At some schools, educators participated in panel discussions or sent letters home in which they openly shared with parents their concern that the state tests do a poor job measuring student growth and teacher effectiveness. But in other schools, educators said they were ordered not to share such views.Meanwhile, some administrators have warned parents who inquired about opting out that students may have to attend summer school or take different tests, and that schools could lose money, advocates said. And some teachers warned that their ratings could suffer, the advocates added. (Chancellor Carmen Fariña has told principals to explain the value of the state tests to parents, but respect their choice if they decide to opt out.)

After several students in one Bronx classroom opted out for the first time this year, the principal told the teacher she would face disciplinary charges if he found that she had encouraged them to do so, according to the teacher who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. (She denied urging students to boycott.) Theresa Cardazone, a sixth-grade social studies teacher at I.S. 281 in Brooklyn, said such threats stop some teachers from giving parents even basic information about opting out.

“The parents are not informed,” she said, “and we’re not allowed to give information.”

Teachers who back the opt-out movement have criticized their union leaders for declining to endorse the boycotts, as the state teachers union recently did. While the head of New York State United Teachers recently recorded a robocall telling members that parents have a right to opt out, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew warned