New York Parents Urge Boycott of High-Stakes Testing in Public Schools

On the eve of another round of Common Core-aligned math exams, parents and students rallied in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park this week, urging families across New York to refuse the tests entirely — part of a boycott movement that has swelled to unprecedented numbers this spring.

Organizers say more than 3,100 New York City students opted out of last week’s English Language Arts exam alone, across 93 schools — roughly double the number who refused the same test a year earlier. Statewide, estimates now put total test refusals above 200,000, a scale that has caught state education officials off guard and pushed New York far below the 95 percent student participation rate required under federal law.

The movement’s strength is most visible on Long Island, which advocates have dubbed the epicenter of the state’s anti-testing fight. In the Brentwood School District, opt-out rates climbed from 49 percent during English testing to 57 percent once math exams began. Notably, the numbers complicate a narrative that’s circulated in some media coverage painting opt-out as a rebellion led by affluent white suburban parents: Brentwood’s student population is 91 percent Black or Latino, and 81 percent economically disadvantaged.

Much of the organized muscle behind this year’s boycott comes from an unlikely source: the state’s teachers themselves. New York State United Teachers, the 600,000-member statewide union, formally called on parents to opt their children out of Common Core exams this year, following a bruising legislative fight over a new teacher evaluation system that allows standardized test scores to count for up to half of a teacher’s performance review.

Parents cite a range of concerns beyond the teacher-evaluation fight: the sheer length and stress of the exams on young children, a narrowing of classroom instruction toward “teaching to the test,” and unease about the amount of student data being collected and retained by the private testing companies administering the exams.

State officials have pushed back. Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch has urged parents not to opt their children out, while simultaneously opposing threats from federal officials to withhold funding from districts with high refusal rates. Her characterization of opt-out parents drew sharp criticism from at least one regional newspaper’s editorial board, which called the stunning scale of the boycott “a vote of no confidence in our state educational leadership” and called for her resignation.

Whether this spring’s numbers represent a peak or simply a new baseline remains to be seen — but for now, organizers in Prospect Park and beyond say the movement shows no signs of slowing down.