GREENWICH VILLAGE — Parents at P.S. 41 are fed up with the state and city Departments of Education's lack of transparency around standardized testing, and they're demanding answers.
The school's Parent Action Committee is circulating an online petition directed at state education Chancellor Betty Rose, city schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña and District 2 Superintendent Bonnie Laboy demanding "real answers" to their questions — and that the tests "not be a bully" to both students and teachers.
"We support our children and our school and believe that if the state, DOE, our school and our children are going to spend this much time, energy and money on the State Tests, that significant improvements must be made," the parents wrote in the petition.
The school's principal, Kelly Shannon, was one of more than 550 principals statewide who signed a letter asking questions about the tests two years ago, which the parents feel was never adequately answered.
The parents say the results of the tests come in too late to be used constructively — by the end of the summer, parents have missed out on the opportunity to help their kids with whatever issues they're scoring low on.
The questions need to be clearer, they said, and teachers need to be allowed to talk about the tests with parents without fear of being reprimanded or censured.
"Even teachers and principals could not agree on the correct answers to ambiguous questions in both [English Language Arts] and Math," they wrote in the petition.
"[And] we should be able to go to our teachers, who are our educational experts, to talk about these tests and their value for our individual children without possible censorship and/or the perceived threat that there could be discipline for doing so," they added.
Other demands include shorter tests and giving them less or no weight in middle school admissions and teacher evaluations. With teacher evaluations in particular, the parents said, the lack of transparency is hugely problematic.
"The proposals that have been presented linking teacher evaluations with test scores makes no sense," they wrote. "Not only because they evaluate teachers who don’t teach math and English, but because they also create a teach-to-the-test mentality and take away our Principal's ability to do her job."
As of Friday, more than 100 people had signed the online petition.
City Department of Education spokeswoman Devora Kaye said this year's state tests will have fewer questions, no time limit for students "as long as they are working productively" and no impact on teacher evaluations, in response to "concerns raised by students, parents, and educators."
"We have also taken steps to lower the stakes on testing by changing our promotion [to middle school] policy so that decisions are no longer based on a single exam and students are assessed by multiple measures, including classwork, course grades, projects, and homework assignments," she said.
Kaye also defended the use of the tests, saying the results "give families, teachers, principals and the DOE important information to hold ourselves accountable to improve instruction and ensure students have the skills they need to succeed."
"We value feedback from parents and we’ll continue to listen to and work closely with families and educators on this important issue," she said.
The state did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
