With the annual state assessments in English Language Arts (ELA) and math fast approaching, NYC parents are confused about their opt out rights. Parents across NYC’s five boroughs report receiving inaccurate, partial or conflicting information about the consequences of refusing the state tests. Many NYC parents are still unaware that they have the right to opt out.
“The DOE has not informed families at our school about our rights to opt out,” said Charmaine Dixon, mother of a 4th grader and PTA President at PS 203 in Brooklyn. “We were never told that we had a choice or how these tests could be used against our school and our teachers. As parents, we need to be told the entire story so we can make the best decision for our children.”
For several years, the NYC Department of Education (DOE) has produced an online guide for parents that answers questions about the annual tests. It states, “If, after consulting with the principal, the parents still want to opt their child out of the exams, the principal should respect the parents’ decision….”
Schools are not required to distribute the DOE guide to parents and most don’t. “I am a parent of four children in different schools, so why am I only now finding out my rights? And from other parents rather than the DOE? Had I known I could have done what I felt was right for my child by opting out, as I know some other parents have done for several years, I would have done so,” said Charlana Walker, PTA president at CASA Middle School in the Bronx.
The DOE’s online parent guide is available only in English. “At a parent meeting, it was only when a grandmother realized that I spoke Spanish that she opened up about her concerns about her grandson and the tests. When I told her that her family has a choice, she responded, ‘We do? Can you tell me more?’” relayed Johanna García, Co-president of the District 6 President’s Council in Manhattan. She added, “PTA presidents from schools with high numbers of ELLs [English Language Learners] are asking for information but have been blocked or discouraged from having an open dialogue at their schools before the test.”
Chancellor Fariña has waged a campaign to prevent principals and teachers from talking to parents about their right to opt out of high-stakes tests; educators are not even supposed to share their professional opinions about the tests themselves.
The bottom line is that parents in economically privileged schools are far more likely to know their rights. The lack of clear and accurate information, and the continuing climate of fear created by the DOE, fall disproportionately on black and Latino families, immigrants and working class communities.
Last year NYC Council Members Helen Rosenthal and Danny Dromm (Chair of the Committee on Education) introduced a resolution calling on the DOE to include opt-out information in its Parent’s Bill of Rights and to distribute the document at the beginning of every school year. The non-binding resolution passed the City Council, but the DOE ignored it.
NYC parents are not fighting alone. Jeanette Deutermann, founder of LI Opt Out and co-founder of NYS Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE), said “Suburban parents stand shoulder to shoulder with our neighboring NYC parents. The rights afforded to parents on Long Island, in Westchester, upstate NY, and Western NY, are the rights that ALL NY parents share. We all deserve the right to have access to information – access to the truth.”
The parents of NYC Opt Out, Change the Stakes and NYSAPE call on Chancellor Fariña to provide ALL parents with clear and accurate information, in their native language, about this year’s state tests and parents’ right to opt out. Only then can parents make an informed decision.
For more information visit:
http://www.optoutnyc.com
http://www.changethestakes.org
http://www.nysape.org
