Lynbrookites caravan to Albany to protest standarized testing in schools

More than 25 teachers and community members from Lynbrook traveled to Albany on June 8 to rally for education reform. From left above were Marion Street Elementary School teachers Liz Parco, Patricia Wierzbicki, Alyse Wolber and Anthony Simone.

Courtesy Mollie Traversa

More than two dozen members of the Lynbrook school community traveled to Albany last weekend to make their voices heard on the direction the state education system is taking — especially its standardized testing.

Lynbrook educators, parents, students and a Board of Education trustee attended a One Voice United rally on June 8, organized by New York State United Teachers. More than 15,000 people from across the state attended the event at the Empire State Plaza.

“Teachers, administrators, board members all agree that the assessments are not assessing the students’ ability,” said Superintendent Dr. Melissa Burak, who made the trip to Albany. “It’s not assessing learning properly, and therefore it either needs a complete overhaul or something really needs to be done.”

Craig Kirchenberg, president of the Lynbrook Teachers Association, organized the trip after speaking with a colleague from Freeport who reserved buses for those who were interested in going. They included educators and community members from the Uniondale, West Hempstead and Hewlett school districts.

“We all feel the exact same way about the direction that education is going,” Kirchenberg said. “The concern that we have is about this over-reliance on the standardized test that doesn’t measure what the politicians think they measure.”

Longtime school board member Alicemarie Bresnihan said she made the trip to stand up for public education, as she has in the past, although this time it was different. “We’ve been trying to fight for public education for so long,” she said. “The attack has never been greater than it is right now.”

With the state’s tax levy cap, which limits the amount a school district can collect in property taxes, and companies like inBloom — a nonprofit technology-services provider that will help teachers integrate the applications that educational software companies are writing for classroom use — now a part of the education system, Bresnihan said that it is time for politicians at all levels to be made aware of the community’s dissatisfaction.