Common Core critics take opt-out message to Hispanic parents

Long Island advocates who are part of a movement against Common Core tests are launching an effort to recruit more Hispanic parents by hosting a bilingual forum Wednesday in Valley Stream.

The event seeks to spread the test-refusal message in minority communities.

The movement against more rigorous tests aligned with Common Core academic standards has grown over the past three years and mushroomed in the spring, when more than 200,000 students statewide in grades three through eight opted out of exams in English-Language Arts and mathematics -- the largest such boycott in the nation.

Parents also have protested that the tests have become the main focus of classroom work.

School districts in large immigrant communities, however, have not seen as many parents and their children join the revolt. Opt-out activists said many of those parents are not aware that sitting out the tests is an option.

"Our goal is to create awareness early," said Maribel Padín-Canestro, a Valley Stream resident who is leading the Latino outreach initiative on Long Island. She created an "Opt Out En Español National" page on social media.

Many Hispanic students are negatively affected by the high-stakes testing, she said, particularly those who are newcomers struggling to learn English and are still expected to show proficiency on the exams.

"The English-language-learner students and the kids in disadvantaged situations are the biggest victims here" in the push for the tests, Padín-Canestro said. "You have kids who may be at a second-grade reading level, and the state is expecting them to read at a sixth- or seventh-grade level to take these tests."

State education officials often have presented the tests as diagnostic tools that help educators gather data on students' progress.

Implementation of the Common Core standards was more politicized as the state tied students' test performance to teachers' and principals' job evaluations.

Jeanette Deutermann, a Bellmore resident who has led much of Long Island's opt-out advocacy, said volunteers "tried to reach every population and every parent" last year, but ran into language and cultural barriers.

"Some of our most vulnerable students are the English language learners," Deutermann said. "I hated the idea that parents that do not speak English and do not have access to the information were left out" of the advocacy push last year.

While the forum will be largely in English, interpreters will help translate to Spanish and people who attend will be able to ask questions in either language, organizers said.

The event starts at 7 p.m. at American Legion Post 854, 51 Roosevelt Ave. in Valley Stream.