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April 6, 2016
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REVOLT CONTINUES
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Nicklaus
Eyes
Oheka
Would lease castle,
redesign golf course
in 99-year deal
A6-7
WAVE OF
OPT-OUTS
Tens of thousands of LI students
refuse to take Common Core tests
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TOP STORIES
A2
O PT-OUT
REVOLT
CONTINUES
NEWSDAY, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
newsday.com
LI parents keep tens of thousands of
kids from taking Common Core exams
Long Island appeared on the
threshold of cementing its
place as the epicenter of the
opt-out movement statewide,
with tens of thousands of students refusing to take the
state’s English language arts
exam yesterday on the first
day of Common Core testing, a
Newsday survey showed.
With 74 of the Island’s 124 districts responding, nearly 58,000
of about 115,000 eligible students in grades three through
eight had opted out of the test,
marking a 50.3 percent refusal
rate Islandwide.
In Nassau districts that
responded, 44.6 percent opted
out, while responses from Suffolk districts showed 56.7
percent boycotting the exam.
Anti-testing activists said
the opt-outs sent a clear message to Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo, the Board of Regents
and the state Education
Department: The tests and
curricula aligned with the
Common Core academic standards must be wholly reconsidered.
“The message is, ‘Fix it in its
entirety and fix it now,’ ” said
Jeanette Deutermann, a North
Bellmore parent and founder of
This story was reported by
Michael R. Ebert, Candice Ferrette,
Víctor Manuel Ramos, Joie Tyrrell
and Olivia Winslow. It was
written by Tyrrell.
the Long Island Opt Out network. “Clearly, parents have
made the decision that these
tests are not what they want for
their children.”
Educators predicted the refusal numbers will increase as
the English exams, commonly
known as the ELA, continue
tomorrow
and
Thursday.
Next, week, students face
three days of state math assessments, from Wednesday
through Friday.
“The numbers . . . send a
thunderclap to Albany,” said
Patchogue-Medford superintendent Michael J. Hynes. “The
tests are not in the best interest
of our children.”
In that Suffolk district, more
than 71 percent of eligible students in grades three through
eight refused to take the examyesterday — an increase from
the 66 percent who opted out
last year.
OO
Nassau
HIGHEST OPT-OUTS
This is the fourth
Bellmore-Merrick
year of test refusals
Top five school districts in each
linked
to
county, by percentage of students
state-driven educaBellmore
who refused to take the state’s
tion reforms.
English language arts test yesterday
In spring 2015,
Levittown
an
estimated
200,000 students
North Bellmore
statewide — more
than 70,000 of them
Comsewogue
on Long Island — reEast Rockaway
fused to take state
tests in English and
Lindenhurst
math, the largest such boycott in the nation. The year
Rocky Point
prior, nearly 9,500 students
moratoopted out, according to the four-year
Connetquot
Newsday survey on the final rium was put in place
day of ELA testing in April that means scores canEastport2014. The year before that, a not be used punitively
South Manor
small group of a few hundred against students or teachstudents, mainly in Rockville ers, whose performance
Centre, declined to take the evaluations are by law linked
to the test results.
tests.
In addition, the Education DeThe Education Department
said it did not plan to issue a partment hired a new company
Opt-outs,
statement yesterday on the re- — Questar Assessment Inc., a
A19
by
district
Minneapolis-based firm — to
fusals.
The boycott surged from help create new tests. This
Merrick to Montauk, despite year’s exams still use material
emergency regulations the Re- from the former company, Pear- tests are the only objective
measure available to compare
gents approved and the Educa- son Education.
Commissioner
MaryEllen progress between schools and
tion Department began to carry
out in response to the contro- Elia had urged parents in re- districts.
Yesterday, all of those efforts
versy. The number of exam cent days to have their chilquestions were lessened and a dren participate, saying the did not appear to have made
70.4%
68.8%
68.5%
68.0%
65.4%
Suffolk
85.6%
80.9%
78.5%
74.1%
72.6%
TOP STORIES
A3
Students at Saxton
Middle School in
Patchogue who
refused to take the
English language
arts test yesterday
study in a cafeteria
instead.
Sixth-graders who opted out yesterday do other work at Saxton Middle
School in Patchogue. ] Watch test explainer: newsday.com/education
land of those replying to Newsday’s survey, with 86 percent of
eligible students refusing the
exam.
“The parents have spoken,
and what’s the message? ‘Listen
to the parents. Listen to us,’ ”
Comsewogue superintendent
Joseph Rella said. “Parents have
made their minds up, and the attempt by the state saying ‘Everything’s changed and it’s better’
— the parents are not buying
In Hempstead, school board
president LaMont Johnson
said yesterday that most eligible students in the district
were taking the test, as was
the case last year, though he
could not provide specifics. He
said he supports the push to
improve performance through
testing and said he had not
heard many complaints about
it from parents or students.
“I just think that our students
are ready for the challenge of
whatever test is put before
them, and they are not frightened by the standards,” Johnson said.
New York State rolled out its
first tests based on national
Common Core academic standards in spring 2013. Soon after
implementation, dozens of
teachers complained the state
Education Department had not
INTERACTIVE
See the 2016 Common
Core debate, photos
and latest stories.
newsday.com/commoncore2016
supplied adequate guides of the
brand-new curricula, and many
parents expressed deep concern about age-inappropriate
test questions and plunging passage rates.
The linkage of students’ test
scores to teachers’ and principals’ performance evaluations
fueled the opposition. That intensified after Cuomo pushed a
law through the legislature in
spring 2015 requiring districts
to base up to 50 percent of the
job ratings on student exam
scores.
After the record test boycott
last spring, Cuomo backtracked, convening an advisory
panel
that
suggested
a
four-year moratorium on use of
students’ test scores.
William Johnson, superintendent of the Rockville Centre
school district, where some of
the first refusals linked to Common Core tests occurred in
spring 2013, said the boycotts
send a clear message to the
state.
“Abandon this whole testing
protocol,” he said. “It’s anachronistic, it’s unnecessary, it could
be easily replaced and it makes
no sense in the current environment.”
NEWSDAY, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
much of a dent in the boycott
numbers.
In the Buffalo area, boycotts
in local districts ranged from
49 percent to 71 percent, and in
Rochester the refusal rate was
about 31 percent, according to
news reports.
Of the Long Island districts
that responded yesterday, 36 reported that more than half their
eligible students boycotted the
test. Comsewogue led the Is-
it.”
Parents in the opt-out movement charge the exams are
harmful and have developmentally inappropriate questions,
that extensive test-prep time
detracts from instruction in
other subjects, and that the assessments put undue pressure
on students and teachers.
Medford parent Diana Andrade was among those in the
Patchogue-Medford
district
whose children did not take the
exam yesterday. Her kids are in
the fifth and seventh grades.
“What has happened in the
last three to four years since
this has rolled out is there has
been much less time spent on
social studies, science and even
field trips and the arts,” said Andrade, who has served on the
district’s school board for the
past two years.
On Monday, Douglas Mayers,
president of the NAACP’s
Freeport/Roosevelt branch, cautioned parents that opting out
of the tests “cannot be an option for our children” because
of the role the exams play in
identifying academic need in
schools and districts with a
high proportion of students of
color.
newsday.com
JEFFREY BASINGER
JEFFERY BASINGER
Opt-out revolt continues
OUR TOWNS
County Department of Real
Estate to knock down a dilapidated Medford home.
Town officials were alerted to
the distressed county-owned
house on Cedar Lane in February
when a nearby homeowner
reported that the home’s roof and
part of the rear had collapsed in a
storm, town officials said.
Brookhaven’s law department
investigated and secured the
house, and is now working with
county officials to demolish it.
Supervisor Edward P. Romaine, in a Feb. 29 letter to
Suffolk Legis. Robert Calarco
(D-Patchogue) asking for assistance, called the structure a
“dangerous building.”
The town also is moving
toward tearing down a vacant
Center Moriches house on
Mickel Ave. It has been boarded
up by town authorities three
times since 2012. An abandoned
in-ground pool is not properly
fenced in, and the house is
infested with fleas and animal
feces, officials said.
Residents can report a vacant
house by calling 451-TOWN.
— DEON J. HAMPTON
N . HE M PSTE A D
Summer programs at
Clark Botanic Garden
Chart shows responses of 74 of Long Island’s 124 school districts on the number of students
in grades 3-8 eligible to take the state English language arts test and the number who refused
to take the exam on April 5, the first of three days it is administered statewide.
# of students
# who
eligible to
refused to
take test
take test
District
NASSAU
Baldwin
Bellmore
Bellmore-Merrick
Carle Place
East Meadow
East Rockaway
Floral Park-Bellerose
Freeport
Glen Cove
Great Neck
Herricks
Hewlett-Woodmere
Hicksville
Island Trees
Jericho
Lawrence
Levittown
Lynbrook
Malverne
Manhasset
Massapequa
Merrick
New Hyde ParkGarden City Park
North Bellmore
North Merrick
North Shore
Oceanside
Oyster Bay-East Norwich
Plainview-Old Bethpage
Rockville Centre
Roosevelt
Roslyn
Syosset
Valley Stream 24
Valley Stream 30
Valley Stream Central
Wantagh
West Hempstead
Westbury
% who
refused
2,144
590
1,796
620
3,296
563
895
2,966
1,429
2,827
1,753
1,333
2,319
1,090
1,404
1,138
3,266
1,298
765
1,530
3,296
854
1,086
406
1,265
334
1,612
368
242
856
613
517
267
802
798
598
281
286
2,237
807
337
187
2,113
479
50.7%
68.8
70.4
53.9
48.9
65.4
27.0
28.9
42.9
18.3
15.2
60.2
34.4
54.9
20.0
25.1
68.5
62.2
44.1
12.2
64.1
56.1
1,004
259
25.8
1,243
693
1,297
2,531
709
2,313
1,656
1,355
1,463
2,912
650
906
1,365
1,356
873
1,862
845
432
552
1,224
286
1,322
986
106
566
1,359
366
163
686
820
277
628
68.0
62.3
42.6
48.4
40.3
57.2
59.5
7.8
38.7
46.7
56.3
18.0
50.3
60.5
31.7
33.7
# of students
# who
eligible to
refused to
take test
take test
District
% who
refused
SUFFOLK
Bayport-Blue Point
1,083
782
Brentwood
8,391
4,648
55.4
Central Islip
3,212
373
11.6
Cold Spring Harbor
72.2%
848
165
19.5
Comsewogue
1,704
1,458
85.6
Connetquot
74.1
2,735
2,026
East Hampton
659
86
13.1
East Quogue
248
156
62.9
1,622
1,178
72.6
37
0
0.0
278
181
65.1
Eastport-South Manor
Fishers Island
Greenport
Hauppauge
1,675
1,198
71.5
Kings Park
1,549
916
59.1
Lindenhurst
2,227
1,801
80.9
506
211
41.7
Middle Country
4,321
2,978
68.9
Miller Place
1,306
868
66.5
211
36
17.1
Mattituck-Cutchogue
Montauk
New Suffolk
5
0
0.0
Oysterponds
38
13
34.2
3,460
2,476
71.6
496
299
60.3
52
10
19.2
Riverhead
2,050
805
39.3
Rocky Point
1,490
1,169
78.5
89
41
46.1
Patchogue-Medford
Port Jefferson
Quogue
Shelter Island
Smithtown
4,390
2,582
58.8
Southampton
645
219
34.0
Southold
361
199
55.1
456
103
22.6
2,902
1,615
55.7
Tuckahoe
231
83
35.9
Wainscott
1
0
0.0
632
298
47.2
William Floyd
3,996
1,595
39.9
Nassau
Suffolk
Long Island
61,360
53,906
115,266
27,368
30,568
57,936
44.6
56.7
50.3
Springs
Three Village
Westhampton Beach
Amagansett
Amityville
Babylon
Bay Shore
Bethpage
Bridgehampton
Center Moriches
Commack
Copiague
SOURCE: SCHOOL DISTRICTS
Deer Park
East Islip
East Moriches
East Williston
Elwood
Elmont
Farmingdale
Fire Island
Franklin Square
Garden City
Half Hollow Hills
Hampton Bays
Harborfields
Hempstead
Huntington
Island Park
Islip
Locust Valley
Long Beach
Longwood
Mineola
Mount Sinai
North Babylon
Northport-East
Northport
Plainedge
Port Washington
Remsenburg-Speonk
Sachem
Sag Harbor
Sayville
Seaford
Sewanhaka
Shoreham-Wading River
South Country
South Huntington
Uniondale
Valley Stream 13
West Babylon
West Islip
Wyandanch
Sagaponack declined to
provide data due to small
school population that
would result in inadvertent
identification of children
COMPILED BY MICHAEL R. EBERT
NEWSDAY, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2016
DID NOT RESPOND
newsday.com
North Hempstead residents
can sign up for summer programming at Clark Botanic
Garden in Albertson.
There are three programs,
with classes offered from May
through September, covering
composting, rainwater recycling,
and creating a rain garden.
In the composting cooperative program, residents will
learn how to compost kitchen
waste to create organic material
ideal for gardening. After the
class, residents will be required
to purchase a $50 composter.
Another program, called
“Recycle the Rain,” will cover
water conservation. Students
will learn how to use rain barrels, which can recycle up to
1,800 gallons of stormwater in
just one summer season. During
the class, 50-gallon rain barrels
will be used and students will be
asked to purchase one for $50.
Residents can also sign up to
learn how to create a rain garden, which is situated near a
source of water runoff to collect
rainwater and diverts it from
the sewer system. At the end of
the class, which costs $25, students will take home a selection
of plants ideal for a rain garden.
All classes are held at 193 I. U.
Willets Rd.. To register, call 311
or 516-869-6311. Classes begin
May 12.
— CHRISTINE CHUNG
WHO OPTED OUT
A19