What a conundrum – The NY State Testing Program. For all my friends, you are entirely correct to push to opt students out of the testing. It is lousy testing, and the testing program begun by the Bush Administration under No Child Left Behind has severely distorted Education and made teachers, not teachers but simply methods of pushing precanned material aimed at teaching to these tests.This has severely damaged the profession of teaching, and the education of countless children.

The problem is that the push to opt out, only seriously started when more and more white suburban School Districts began to be seriously hurt by this testing. Prior to that time, many, many urban students and urban school Districts were getting hammered by the testing. Many urban schools were closed, and then reopened due to the failing grades of urban students on these tests. This happened for years before parents in majority white school districts correctly took up the call to opt out. No one seemed to care about the urban students prior to that time.

Of course the outcry really began when teachers were suddenly going to have their performance reviews based in part on how their students did on this testing. While this was largely useful for Schools with low student turnover, it was vastly unfair to teachers, again largely in Urban Districts with very high student turn over.  In these situations a teachers job performance could be negatively or positively impacted by the scores of a student that they may only have had in their class for the last month or days.

While this was true, no-one really cared before that time about all the students who failed to do well, year after year on this testing.I frequently find patients who come to me who have received scores of 1 or 2s on this testing for years, and no-one has explained to the parent or student that those scores were indicative of a serious disability.  Years wasted as schools and districts simply said, the testing is lousy and everyone does poorly.

Now if your child does not have any disabilities, if they have always done well on the testing, I strongly encourage you to opt your child out. If however your child is a patient of mine, if they have done poorly on past testing, if they currently have a Section 504 plan or an IEP, DO NOT opt them out.  While the testing is terribly flawed, it is standardized and it is norm referenced. This means it gives you much more meaningful data about your students’ learning and progress then any report card or any F&P number or letter.  Additionally if they do poorly it will force the School District to provide some level of AIS or RTI support. Of course if they do get a 1 or 2 on the testing, don’t settle for the “oh its not meaningful, don’t worry” Maybe it is, but, maybe its not.  If not follow-up with your school or your pediatrician or family doctor. Or if necessary come see me, then I can explain what it really means.