Parents, Educators Rally Against New York State Common Core Plan
BROOKVILLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Outraged parents around New York state voiced their discontent with the state's Common Core standardized testing program Tuesday.
The assessments are supposed to be aligned with Common Core standards that outline math and language skills that should be mastered in each grade.
But critics said the exams distract from real learning – putting added stress on students and staff members.
TV 10/55 Long Island Bureau Chief Richard Rose reported about 1,500 people gathered to protest the Common Core program at Saxton Middle School in Patchogue, Long Island Tuesday night.
Meanwhile upstate, the The Kenmore-Tonawanda Board of Education on Tuesday discussed a proposal to ``seriously consider not administering'' the mandatory tests unless school funding changes are made. The measure had support from the nearly 200 people who packed a meeting there, but the board put off voting on it to solicit more input.
A big and loud rally was against the Common Core was also held Monday in Brookville, Long Island.
More than 1,000 parents and educators rallied there, urging an expansion of the boycott against the standardized tests. Many carried signs that read, "Save our kids" and "Refuse the test."
"The testing is a way of creating fear that our public schools are failing, when they are actually not," organizer Nanette Malconi said.
Speaker after speaker was cheered by the crowd as each urged parents to opt out of a testing standard Malconi believes is destroying public education, WCBS 880's Mike Xirinachs reported.
"We have to take public schools back. We have to take them back from corporate reformers," Malconi said. "It is being sold as an agenda to improve education but it's really an agenda to destroy education."
Another activist called Common Core the Civil Rights issue of our time, Xirinachs reported.
Dissatisfaction with the Common Core tests led thousands of New York parents to opt out of the 2014 exams.