My children have accomplished great things while attending school in the Longwood Central District. To state that a flawed assessment process is a necessary tool to show that growth is an insult. I have the utmost confidence in the highly qualified staff of Longwood. By opting my children out of the state assessments, I believe that I am showing Governor Cuomo that I not only feel these exams have no place in my child’s learning, but that I wholeheartedly support the teachers that work with my children everyday. By opting my children out, I am clearly stating that:
• I will not support exams that look to punish those teachers.
• I will not support exams that will make up 50% of a teacher’s yearly evaluation.
• I will not support exams that require my child to sit for three consecutive days reading texts that are designed to be more challenging than their readability level.
• I will not support exams that require my child to sit for three consecutive days involved in math skills that they have not had the time to master.
• I will continue to opt my children out of these assessments and encourage others to do so if they believe it is the right choice for their child, regardless of what type of letter they receive from district administration.
I believe that changes will come. I don’t believe that I have to be forced to subject my children to a faulty system in order to change the, as you stated, “next generation of assessment.” I believe that the people with experience and knowledge of the educational field can get together and make the changes needed without subjecting current students to something developed to rank and dismiss hard working educators.
I sincerely hope that the district’s message at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year is a more positive and encouraging one than the message that was put out at the close of this school year.