Email City Council: Rein in Excessive Standardized Testing!

Click HERE to start an email to Education Committee Chair Mark Treyger and cc your city council member. Copy and paste the message below into the body of the email and be sure to sign your name at the end and personalize your message by including your relationship to schools (student, parent/guardian/grandparent, educator, etc) and where you live (city/state).

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Dear NYC Council Members,

I am writing to express my grave concerns about the increased standardized testing burden the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE) is imposing on its public school children and teachers, starting as early as kindergarten. NYC DOE made the decision to add both academic and social-emotional learning tests, euphemistically called “screeners,” unilaterally, unprompted by any state or federal mandates. The “screeners” have been forced onto schools without open and meaningful feedback from families or even the educators tasked with actually administering them. This would be cause for concern at any time, but is particularly alarming and inappropriate as school children and educators continue to grapple with the devastations of the pandemic. In this context, I urge you to draw on the power that is vested in you to call for a city council session to discuss this excessive testing and to require that the NYC DOE inform parents of their right to refuse to allow their children to participate.

Below are further details.

In addition to the NYS English Language Arts and Mathematics Tests (given every spring to students in grade 3-8), the NYS English as a Second Language Achievement Test (given to English as New Language learners), and the Regents exams (required for high school graduation), the NYC DOE is now insisting that schools also administer the following:

  • Academic tests, 3 times/year (to be taken by all public school students in kindergarten through 10th grade)

  • Social-emotional learning questionnaire (to be filled out by staff for all public school students in kindergarten through 12th grade)

The NYC DOE is using the following private testing corporation platforms for assessing students:

  • Northwest Education Association’s Measures of Academic Progress Testing (aka “MAP”)

  • Acadience Learning Inc.’s Acadience Testing (aka “Acadience”)

  • Curriculum Associates, LLC’s iReady Assessment (aka “iReady”)

  • Aperture Education’s Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (aka “DESSA”)

It is my understanding that personal data collected by the NYC DOE is being provided to these private corporations without parental consent. Information on our children should not be shared with anyone beyond the staff of our children's school.

The NYC DOE has not uniformly informed parents that their students have already been administered these tests, that their children’s personal information and test results may have already been uploaded to the servers of private testing corporations this year, or that they had the right to refuse to allow their children to participate. I am very concerned about my child’s privacy.

As stated above, these tests are being implemented in NYC in addition to a slew of other standardized tests mandated by the state. If a child in New York City attends public schools from K-12, they will now be subject to, at minimum, 39 additional academic standardized assessments. (Note: this does not include teacher-created tests, such as unit tests, finals, etc that most students also take.) NYS has a 3% cap on the amount of instructional time that can be spent on standardized testing. I am very concerned that my child is spending more than 3% of their time in school on standardized testing. 

The NYC DOE has already spent $54 million on contracts with these private educational testing corporations on these tests. None of these contracts were developed with the input of NYC teachers, school administrators, or parents. This is money that could be spent on reducing class size, increasing the number of teachers, counselors, and social workers, or supporting classroom learning. I am very concerned that my tax dollars are being spent on more testing.

The first round of academic testing has already been implemented. The second round will occur in January and February. Please act now to rein in NYC DOE and inform parents. You can stem this avalanche of excessive testing before it buries our schools and obliterates what’s left of instructional time.

Sincerely,

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