Parents often know that their children are following Common Core learning standards but cannot tell which curriculum or lesson materials their school uses. In…
In New York schools, standardized assessments influence far more than reading and mathematics instruction. The testing calendar can affect the daily schedule,…
Parents may choose to refuse standardized tests for many reasons, including concerns about test quality, excessive testing, student stress, or the use of…
Parents, students, and educators in New York can raise concerns when a school district mishandles state exams, pressures families about test participation,…
A child who consistently earns high scores may seem like the least likely candidate for opting out of standardized tests. For some New York families, however,…
Testing policy in New York is shaped by several institutions, each with a different responsibility. The State Education Department administers assessments and…
A child’s teacher often sees the effects of testing stress before anyone else does: headaches, sleeplessness, tearfulness, disengagement, or fear of making a…
The phrase “instructional shift” describes a change in what students do during English language arts lessons and what teachers emphasize. In the Common Core…
A local opt-out Facebook group can give parents, teachers, and community members a practical place to share testing information, compare experiences, and…
New York’s annual testing season produces very different opt-out patterns from one county to another. In some communities, refusing state assessments has…