Weighing in on opting out: Board of Ed members on Common Core

Board of Education member Al Brigham’s son opted out of taking Common Core Standards tests administered this month with his father’s approval.

“It was really up to him,” said Mr. Brigham, who teaches in Hampton Bays.

What concerns him about the tests administered to students in grades 3 through 8 is there’s insufficient feedback to the district about individual student’s strengths and weaknesses.

He believes the tests — with Governor Andrew Cuomo’s push to make them count for 50 percent of a teacher’s assessment — is being used more to judge teachers than help students.

“[As a teacher]I’m there to see how good you can do, not how bad you can do,” Mr. Brigham said, and he’s not convinced the state tests are designed that way.

Board President Stephen Gessner sees himself as a lone wolf in favoring Common Core, pointing out that testing is only a part of the program.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” Dr. Gessner said. “I was sad to see that parents were [opting out].”

Teachers and union members, who feared the use of test results would adversely affect their evaluations, campaigned against the tests, he said.

“I think testing is important,” he said, and those who opted out are “missing an opportunity.”

It’s important to the district to see how it compares with other school districts, Dr. Gessner said.
Board member Elizabeth Melichar, who works for Eastern Suffolk BOCES, said the district’s role is to provide parents with information they need to make intelligent decisions.

With Academic Administrator Jennifer Rylott able to translate “educational jargon” so that parents can understand it, Ms. Melichar believes Shelter Island is well served in getting the information to guide decisions.

At the same time, she doesn’t know what decision she might have made if she had a child in those grades to sit for the tests.

Board member and former teacher Marilynn Pysher supports the intentions of the Common Core program, but said it wasn’t well implemented.

“They really shoved it down everybody’s throat.”

She understands why teachers, whose evaluations are being partially determined by test results, would try to teach to the test to assure their students do well. But the best way to measure student achievement would be test at the start and then at the end of the term to see if students are improving.