At their recent regular meeting on Wednesday, May 4, the New Paltz Central School District Board of Education passed a resolution by a vote of 7-0 to not administer the grade seven ELA field tests and to direct schools Superintendent Maria Rice to return the field testing materials to the New York State Education Department indicating the tests were not administered.
The decision is part of a process begun back in January of 2015, when the BOE passed a resolution clarifying their opposition to mandatory field testing of students in New York State.”There is no research to support the assertion that standardized testing will result in gains in student achievement and we object to standards that have not been field-tested or fully vetted. We must reject field tests that support high stakes assessments based on these experimental standards… New Paltz Central School District believes that classroom time and student efforts should be used for instruction, not for the benefit of for-profit testing companies or to aid in the creation of tests that have not been proven to increase student achievement. Field tests are not required by federal law and we object to any state testing mandates that exceed federal requirements, especially when schools across New York State are struggling to meet the unfunded and overly burdensome mandates of Race to the Top.”
The 2015 resolution also explained the board’s position that because neither students nor educators receive performance results from field tests, the tests yield no educational benefit… “and that in fact, this type of assessment is in violation of Pearson’s contract with NYSED which requires that assessments adhere to the American Psychological Association’s testing standards which include the test takers right to receive a timely and understandable explanation of test results.”
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