It's time to opt out of opting out of state tests

How do parents, teachers, administrators and the community of taxpayers who fund local schools fairly assess how students in their districts are doing? Are children learning as they should to be informed citizens and productive workers?

In more than 100 Long Island school districts, the answer is that we don't know. That's because Long Island has New York's highest refusal rate for taking state standardized tests for grades 3-8.

Across Long Island, 36% of those eligible refused to take the English Language Arts exam, while 34% refused the math one. Elsewhere in the state, fewer than 9% of students opted out of English and math. In more than two dozen Long Island school districts, the opt-out rate was more than 50%. The highest percentage was in Comsewogue. where 72.5% of students refused to show up for state tests last year.

With Long Island as its hub, the opt-out “movement” has morphed into an unproductive protest against standardized statewide measures of student performance — no matter how accurate or appropriate. Arguments used in the past to undermine the testing, such as tying the tests to teacher evaluations, are no longer valid. And yet, as Levittown schools superintendent Todd Winch said, a “decade worth of ripples that continues to expand” has become “just the way things are.”

It doesn't have to be this way. Standardized tests should not be the sole measure by which schools are evaluated, but they should be part of the equation. Especially in the wake of the pandemic, which generated great concern about academic setbacks, it's important to know how students are doing to better understand what remedial efforts are needed. The only way to get a fair measurement and accurate data is for students to take the state tests. This doesn't mean teachers have to “teach to the test.” Students throughout the rest of the state and beyond are learning in dynamic, creative ways, even where opt-out numbers are low.

As Gov. Kathy Hochul is focusing intently on how students are taught and on the funding schools receive, this should be the moment to opt out of this defeatist movement. Refusing the test should have consequences. The state should find ways to incentivize schools to raise their state test participation rates. Perhaps the state could consider prioritizing some funding, or the availability of additional grants and benefits, for schools in which more students take state tests. As a last resort, it might consider penalizing those districts in which the majority of students refuse to take the test.

There will always be a few students who don't take the state tests, whether due to illness or other legitimate reasons. But the widespread avoidance of testing at some Long Island schools hurts students, districts and the taxpayers who support them.

It's time to opt out — of opting out.