Record Opt-Out Rates On Long Island, In Western NY

Reports are coming in on the number of children who refused to take the state tests this year and they are staggering:

Thousands of students have refused to take state standardized tests Tuesday in the Buffalo Niagara region, the first day of English Language Arts tests given to third through eighth graders across New York State this week.

The number of students refusing to participate is expected to grow significantly over the 60,000 statewide who refused to take the tests last year.

The rate reached 70 percent Tuesday in the West Seneca School District, where 2,074 of 2,976 eligible students refused testing. Rates at individual schools ranged from 50 percent at Northwood Elementary School to 83 percent at Allendale Elementary.

Last year, the district-wide refusal rate in West Seneca was approximately 30 percent.

...

Lake Shore School District officials still are tallying the numbers, but estimated more than half of the 1,001 students in third through eighth grades decided to opt out of this week’s test.

“We’re going to be over 50 percent and that’s about where we were last year, as well,” said Superintendent James Przepasniak.

...

At Springville-Griffith Institute schools, more than 40 percent of students – about 340 – opted out, according to Superintendent Paul Connelly.

...

Refusal rates at or above 50 percent are anticipated for middle school students in the Frontier and Hamburg School Districts, sources have estimated.

Nearly all seventh and eighth graders at Lovejoy Discovery reportedly didn’t take the tests, and small numbers of students in other Buffalo elementary and middle schools also opted out. Anti-testing advocates pointed out that last year, very few children refused tests in Buffalo Public Schools.

At the Maryvale School District in Cheektowaga, 19 percent of students did not take the ELA tests.

...

High opt-out numbers were seen elsewhere around the state, as many parents ignored the urging of everyone from the state Education Department to the chancellor of the state university system to have their children take the exams. The Journal News in Westchester County reported many districts in the lower Hudson Valley had 25 percent or more of students opt-out; Mahopac in Putnam County had an exam refusal rate of 50 percent.

On Long Island, Newsday reported, there were record numbers of students declining to take the ELA exams Monday in some districts. Rockville Center, home of Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, a Nassau County Republican, had an opt-out rate of 60 percent, the paper reported.

Some Long Island numbers:

These #optout numbers from LI school districts (is this from .@Sashammy ??) are ENORMOUS pic.twitter.com/AjVj9Li4kR
— nycdoenuts (@nycdoenuts) April 14, 2015

@nycdoenuts Yup that's me. And just got word that Rocky Point is in fact over 70%!
— brian s (@Sashammy) April 14, 2015

@nycdoenuts @Sashammy add Babylon 59% and Bellmore-Merrick 62% to your list :) #optout
— stu stein (@thestustein) April 14, 2015

@perdidostschool @teka21bat @nycdoenuts @LIOptOut @NYSAPE Updated Suffolk County #OptOut numbers: pic.twitter.com/d78q97K2uL
— brian s (@Sashammy) April 14, 2015

More as we get it, but I think this last piece of information is quite telling:

The Cuomo administration had no comment Tuesday morning on the high refusal rates seen in some Western New York school districts.

When even Cuomo's flying attack monkeys are silenced by the numbers, you know they're stunning.