Half of Oceanside, Island Park students opt-out

Nearly half of Oceanside and Island Park students were opted out of state English tests last week.

This is an increase for both districts, when about third of students opted out from the English Language Arts assessment in 2015.

This year, Island Park schools reported that 46 percent of eligible test takers, or 223 of 484 students, were opted-out of the test. Instead, those students were kept in a quiet location where they could read. Parents were also allowed to keep their children home until 11 a.m. on testing days.

The Oceanside school district said that 1,247 children out of 2,531 total, or 49.3 percent, of the eligible test takers were opted out. The sixth grade had the most with 53 percent, or 255 students, opted out of a total of 471. The fifth grade had the least with 44 percent, or 176 students out of 389.

Chrystie Pizzo-Interligi of Island Park, who is the administrator of the Facebook page, “IP Parents Opting Out and Getting Informed,” wrote that she opted-out her fifth-grade son for the third year in a row because of the anxiety the tests cause. “The tests do not count towards the child’s grades, so then what’s the point of taking them?” she wrote. “Common Core is robbing our children of a quality education, and refusing the tests is the only way to have our voices heard that we won’t stand for it!”

Island Park Superintendent Rosmarie Bovino said that the district uses the test results as one of several measures, alongside other tests and teacher observations, to determine student success and needs. “We modify teaching plans and learning activities accordingly,” she wrote in an email. “We also use this data to measure how well our instruction is meeting the needs of our students, by investigating the skills and content embedded in each curriculum standard and determining whether or not the materials and activities selected by our teachers are truly addressing the requisite skills and content.”

Bovino said that while she did not approve of using test results for teacher assessments, she believed there was some value the information gleaned from state tests, especially alongside other data. “I am very glad the assessments were untimed this year and the number of items was reduced,” she wrote. “I think the untimed testing environment helped children relax and perform to the best of their ability.”

Irina Sokol of Oceanside, who has a daughter in eighth grade, said that she did not opt-out because these exams are the first of many in a child’s life. “Life is not about opting out — it’s about rising up to challenges head on and doing your best,” she wrote in an email. “These exams are only the tip of an iceberg, followed by Regents, SAT, ACT, college exams and then various professional license exams with some professions requiring periodic recertification.”