Educators and activists slammed the state-mandated Common Core curriculum at a public forum sponsored by opponents of the Common Core in New Hyde Park on Tuesday night.
The forum, entitled “Is the Common Core a Trick or Treat? You Decide,” left no doubt where the presenters stood on the issue as they addressed an audience of more than 100 people in the Elks Lodge on Lakeville Road.
New Hyde Park activist and parent Jill Campbell organized the forum with other local parents.
Joseph Rella, superintendent of the Comsewogue School District in Port Jefferson Station, said children statewide are frustrated over homework assignments and not wanting to go to school because of the Common Core curriculum.
“Children only get one shot at childhood. No do-overs,” Rella said. “Given the devastating effects on children, this has to stop.”
He encouraged people to talk to neighbors and friends about mounting resistance to the imposition of the Common Core standards.
“There’s no program so good you can’t question it – except this one,” Rella said. “You know what’s best for your child. Don’t let anybody tell you that you don’t.”
Professor Andrew Dodge from the Department of Education Leadership and Administration at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus, said the Common Core had its origins in the late 1990s when he said the federal government saw a future in “high stakes testing.”
He said consultations he’s had with education administrators in China and Finland have convinced him an excess of standardized testing is detrimental to students’s academic development.
In China, Dodge said education officials told him there was too much testing in the county. In Finland, he said, Finnish officials told him there no standardized tests in the country’s education system and 45 percent of Finnish students attend vocational schools.
Dodge questioned the value of the state assessment tests, saying, “These tests are not reliable. They’re not stable,” Dodge said. “Nobody’s connecting the dots here.”
Jeanette Deuterman, founder of Long Island Opt Out, advocated parents withdraw their children from the state testing program. She said she has withdrawn her two grade schools sons from state tests in the North Bellmore School District.
“If they don’t have willing participants in this, that will end this,” she said.
Deuterman said more than 1,000 children were withdrawn from the state assessment tests last year by Long Island parents. She said parents can withdraw their children from the testing simply by sending a letter to their respective school districts indicating they don’t want them to their child to take the state assessments. She said school districts will typically reply with a letter stating there is no way to opt out of the tests, but she said in reality, they can simply refuse to participate in the testing.
In her school district, children opting out are brought to the cafeteria to read while other students take the tests. Other school districts maintain what she called a “sit and stare” policy, requiring the students to remain in the classroom during the test periods. She said parents can arrange to pick their children up from school under those conditions.
She said there are currently 12,000 people on the Facebook page she established for her organization last year,
“Most people agree there’s too much testing now. It’s no longer a fringe movement,” Deuterman said.
Yvonne Gasparino, who created the Stop Common Core in New York Web site, said, “It’s a one size fits all approach without any attention to individual differences.”
She said the Common Core initiative is collecting data on children and their families through inBloom, an entity she said was created by Bill and Melinda Gates.
“Our teacher’s rights have been handcuffed. Your rights as parents have been diminished,” she said.
State Assemblyman Ed Ra spoke briefly, describing the bill he has co-sponsored with state Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Oyster Bay) to establish a system of waivers from state assessment tests and other state mandates for high-performing school districts.
“If a district is doing its job, leave it alone,” Ra said.
He said momentum is building statewide to challenge requirements of the Common Core standards.
“We have to return the creativity to the teachers,” he said. “This movement is growing in leaps and bounds.”
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
