VOORHEESVILLE — Like schools across the state, Voorheesville administered what have become controversial state English Language Arts tests this week, and nearly a fifth of students set to take the exams opted out, instead.

“We had 97 students refuse the exams, about 18 percent of the students,” Superintendent Teresa Thayer Snyder told The Enterprise on Tuesday.

On Monday night before the week’s first exam on Tuesday, the district gave a presentation to answer parents’ questions about how and why the tests would be used.

“Voorheesville has had a long-standing tradition of academic excellence,” said board of education President Timothy Blow. He said that the board is not blind to the objections of the district’s teachers, many of whom had previously spoken out about how the state tests are both linked to teacher evaluations and not returned in their entirety to allow educators to evaluate student performance.

“This is not an open forum,” Blow said. The district set up a presentation by local administrators after gathering parents’ comments and questions over the last two weeks, he said, so that parents considering having their children opt out of the state tests given in grades three through eight could “decide for themselves, within reason.

“Any decision should be made with information,” Blow said.

Blow spoke before a crowd of 75 parents.

Snyder told the audience that Voorheesville’s curriculum is based on Common Core standards, and that the children’s scores are not retained on their report cards.

“We use those test scores to drive instruction,” said elementary school Principal Thomas Reardon.

The administrators told parents that the state scores are one criterion used to determine if a student should be placed in accelerated math courses.

Snyder said that parents who chose to have their children refuse the testing should bring in a letter stating so by the morning of the exam.

“When you make a decision, there is a consequence,” Snyder told parents. “We’re moving [grades] three to eight to a level with a higher expectation. They will be better prepared than we were” at graduation, she said.

“It is as new for us as it is for your students,” said Karen Conroy, the director of curriculum for kindergarten through grade 12 in Voorheesville. The testing “goes to the district goal of continuous improvement. We teach to the Common Core standards. The test tests those standards.”

Blow said that the use of worksheets for student assignments — a critique parents and teachers have lobbed at the revised state tests and preparation for them — had “nothing to do with Common Core.”

“We normally utilize worksheets, particularly in math instruction,” he said. “Things aren’t perfect, but we’re striving for improvements. We recognize there are significant flaws with the test.”

Blow said that the opt-out movement may be a short-term victory for Common Core opponents.

“Programmatically, there are some benefits that we glean,” Conroy said. After the state made changes between 2005 and 2010, Conroy said, student scores dropped.

“We could see that programs like math or English did have room for improvement,” she said. “A level 2 [score, out of 4] does not mean your child failed. A level 2 means they’re on track for a Regents at [a score of ] 65.”

Rachel Gilker, the parent of a fourth-grader, told The Enterprise that she planned to have her son opt out of the exams.

“Teachers shouldn’t be gauged on something they can’t control,” Gilker said. “Fifty percent of their job evaluation is based on something they can’t control. It’s a system that doesn’t work.”

Gilker said that, over time, teachers might not want challenging students in the classroom if job performance is linked to state scores.

“This is asinine. They are teaching to the exam, instead of teaching. There is no reason to test children to this extreme,” she said.

Reardon said during the presentation that the exams would not be stressful for students. The school planned to serve breakfast, maintain the students’ regular schedules except for the one-hour morning exam, and keep the same lunch schedules for students, he said. The school also planned to have adults with whom students are familiar administer or proctor the exams, which are given in familiar formats for the children, he said. Bathrooms would be available, he said, and a counselor may come in to do deep breathing exercises with students.

“Everything ran smoothly,” Snyder told The Enterprise Tuesday afternoon. “We also had the non-tested students housed in non-testing spaces, where they read. We had no problems taking care of them and the students who were tested,” she said.
On Monday, Blow said, “We value our teachers. We value the job they’re doing. We understand there are a lot of issues in this area.”