While opt-out numbers for students taking the English Language Arts Common Core test at North Shore schools is significantly lower than the rest of Long Island, most schools saw an increase in opt-out totals from last year.
The Great Neck, Manhasset, Roslyn, Herricks, Port Washington, Sewanhaka and New Hyde Park-Garden City Park school districts saw about 24.4 percent of students eligible to take the test opt-out of Tuesday’s ELA exam, according to figures obtained by Blank Slate Media.
Newsday reported that about 50 percent of students across Long Island opted out from taking the ELA exam.
Common Core’s biggest flash points for criticism are its standardized tests, which opponents say are unnecessarily tough for students, and the direct link between test scores and teacher evaluations.
The standards, first introduced in 2012, are intended to teach conceptual thinking and problem-solving skills at each grade level to prepare students for more complex future coursework.
Some educators and administrators say the ideas behind the curriculum are strong, but its rollout has caused problems for New York’s teachers and students.
About 39 percent of students in the Roslyn school district, or 556 of the 1,463 who were eligible to take the test, opted out of the ELA exam.
Last year, about 32.5 percent of students opted out.
District Superintendent Gerard Dempsey said initially the district had small numbers of students deciding to opt out of the test until the past few weeks when numbers soared.
“We sent out a letter to parents indicating the procedure if they wanted to opt out and we initially had a slow response, about one student a day,” Dempsey said. “But over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had a little bit more in the secondary school and now we’re back in the same ballpark as last year.”
The Manhasset school district had the lowest opt-out totals of the North Shore schools, with 12 percent of it students, or 184 of the 1,530 eligible students, not taking the test.
District Superintendent Charles Cardillo said the low opt-out numbers were expected.
“We anticipate our numbers are going to be relatively lower than other districts around Nassau County based on what we had last year,” Cardillo said.
Last year, only 3.6 percent of students opted out of the ELA exam from the Manhasset school district.
Cardillo said he hoped education policymakers would see how the tests take away from time in the classroom.
“I mean, we have six days of testing and we’re losing instructional time,” he said. “Hopefully our state legislators will see how much time we’re losing administering this test and change it.”
The Great Neck school district saw an 8 percent increase in opt-out numbers from last year’s total, with 18 percent of students not taking the test.
Great Neck North Middle School, however, saw a significantly higher percentage of students opting out at 38 percent.
Fifteen percent of students at Great Neck South High School opted out, while totals at the Lakeville, E.M. Baker, Saddle Rock and John F. Kennedy elementary schools saw 4 percent, 8 percent, 9 percent and 14 percent of students opting out, respectively.
Superintendent of Schools Teresa Prendergast declined to comment on the opt-out numbers, citing a need to speak with the district’s school principals to understand the totals better.
The Herricks school district saw similar opt-out numbers to last year’s totals.
Fifteen percent of students opted out of the ELA exam, up about 2 percent from last year’s total.
District Superintendent Fino Celano said a reason for the district’s low opt-out numbers was a trust from Herricks parents in the education system.
“I think that there’s a certain level of trust and understanding that our parents have that while the state assessments aren’t perfect, the state education department has made efforts to improve the assessments based on feedback from parents and from educators and they see that there is some value to students sitting for the tests.”
“I think that our parents understand that state assessments have a role to play in the overall educational system,” he added.
The Port Washington school district saw about an 8 percent increase in ELA test opt-outs.
Superintendent of Schools Kathleen Mooney said 718 of the 2,457 eligible students in the district, or about 29 percent, opted out.
The Sewanhaka school district saw the biggest increase in opt-out numbers on the North Shore.
Last year, 10.8 percent of students in the district opted out while this year 33 percent, or 869 of 2,624 eligible students, decided to not take the ELA test.
Elmont Memorial High School saw only6 percent of students opt-out.
Floral Park Memorial High School saw 36 percent of students not take the test, while 61 percent of students at H. Frank Carey High School opted out.
New Hyde Park Memorial High School saw 34 percent of students opt-out of the test, while 28 percent of students at Sewanhaka High School opted out.
Opt-out percentages in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park school district saw a slight increase from last year.
About 26 percent of students opted out of the ELA exam, up 2 percent from 2015.
Efforts to reach New Hyde Park-Garden City park school district officials were unavailing.
Mineola and East Williston school district officials said opt-out numbers would be released at the end of this week.
Next Tuesday, students will again face the decision to opt-out when the Common Core Math exam is set to begin.
