Suffolk teacher fights against Common Core testing

A Comsewogue teacher is fighting against the controversial Common Core testing.

Beth Dimino, an eighth-grade science teacher and president of the Port Jefferson Station Teacher's Association, says she will not proctor the state assessments this spring.

Dimino, who has been teaching for about 19 years, says she does support testing as a way to evaluate how students are learning. But the assessments, based on the state’s Common Core curriculum, she insists are flawed every step of the way. She says the tests are the equivalent of child abuse.

“I cannot administer this test. I cannot do this to my students,” she told News 12.

Dimino says she understands she is potentially putting her job in jeopardy.

"I'm hoping to be reassigned that day to another job so the district can still facilitate what it needs to do and I can stand up for what I believe in," Dimino says.

The superintendent told News 12 that he not only respects her decision, but supports it.

“I'm not directing her to proctor. She would be insubordinate if I directed her to proctor,” said Comsewogue Superintendent Dr. Joseph Rella. “She'll have other work to do that day.”

Sixty percent of the students in that district did not take the assessments last year.