×

Percentage Of Students Opting Out Of State Tests Decreases

Students look over their work in class. P-J file photo

The percentage of Chautauqua County students choosing not to take state-mandated tests is decreasing.

Officials in many school districts should also be happy that the state Education Department’s recently revised Every Schools Succeed Act guidelines removed a guideline that districts with test refusal rates of more than 5 percent could have portions of their federal Title 1 funding set aside — because few area districts would have met the requirement.

On the English language arts exam, only Panama, Jamestown and Sherman would have met the state’s previously proposed 95 percent participation rate while only Panama and Jamestown would have met the participation rate target on the math exams.

Districts with the highest percentage of opt-outs were Fredonia (34.2 percent on ELA and 38.4 percent on math), Falconer (24.3 percent on ELA and 23.7 percent on math), Brocton (21.5 percent on ELA and 26 percent on math), Westfield (21.1 percent on both exams) and Chautauqua Lake (18.6 percent on ELA and 22.7 percent on math).

Jamestown and Ripley were the only districts to see an increase in students refusing to take tests from 2017 to 2018. Jamestown’s refusal rate increased from 1.8 percent to 2.3 percent on English language arts and from 2.1 percent to 2.6 percent on math while Ripley had no test refusals in 2017 and saw their rates increase to 9.2 percent on ELA and 12.1 percent on math.

Fewer than half of all county students taking the assessments were deemed proficient. Those numbers could actually be worse given the profiles of test-refusing students. The state gives 2017 results of students who refused to take the tests in 2018. In most cases, students who refused to take the tests in 2018 were lower-performing students on the 2017 tests. Roughly 41 percent of Southwestern Central Schools students who refused to take the 2018 ELA tests didn’t meet the state standards in 2017, for example, numbers that hold true in Cassadaga (42.3 percent), Pine Valley (20 percent), Dunkirk (42.8 percent), Silver Creek (30.7 percent), Jamestown (36.5 percent), Brocton (30.9 percent) and Sherman (75 percent). On the math tests, test refusers didn’t meet the state standards on 2017 tests by similar percentages: Southwestern (31.8 percent), Cassadaga Valley (50 percent), Dunkirk (44.6 percent), Falconer (26.1 percent), Silver Creek (29 percent), Jamestown (49 percent), Brocton (24.3 percent, Ripley (37.5 percent) and Sherman (62.5 percent).

The statewide test refusal rate was 18 percent, a decline of one percentage point from last year’s refusal rate of 19 percent, and a decline of three percentage points from 2016’s refusal rate of 21 percent. Statewide, state Education Department officials said the vast majority of students who refused the tests were from average or low-need school districts. Long Island remains the geographic area with the highest percentage of test refusals in both mathematics and ELA. Charter schools and schools in the Big 5 city school districts had the lowest refusal rates in the state.

In May, the state Education Department proposed regulations to implement the state’s ESSA plan, one provision of which would have allowed the state education commissioner to require districts to set aside a portion of its Title 1 funding to improve participation rates in the third- through eighth-grade ELA and math tests after five years of consistently low participation, which was defined by the state as 95 percent participation. The state received nearly 1,900 comments in response to the draft regulations, a majority of which dealt with requirements related to the state testing.

The Title 1 funding set-aside was removed from the draft regulations. Schools with low participation rates still will have to have a plan to increase participation rates, but if a school is making progress increasing participation on state tests the school only needs to update its plan and not write a new plan each year.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, Title 1 funding is designed to help students achieve proficiency on state academic achievement standards. Title I schools with percentages of low-income students of at least 40 percent may use Title I money, along with other federal, state, and local funds, to operate a schoolwide program to upgrade the instructional program for the whole school.

Title I schools with less than 40 percent low-income students or that choose not to operate a schoolwide program offer a “targeted assistance program” in which the school identifies students who are failing, or most at risk of failing, to meet the state’s academic achievement standards. Targeted assistance schools design, in consultation with parents, staff, and district staff, an instructional program to meet the needs of those students. Both schoolwide and targeted assistance programs must use instructional strategies based on scientifically based research and implement parental involvement activities.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today