Downtown Schools Become Sites of Protest Over 'Unfair' State Tests

At P.S. 234 in Tribeca, parents, teachers and students stage a large demonstration against the state's recently administered English Language Arts exam. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Lower Manhattan principals, teachers, parents and children were among 32 Manhattan school communities that gathered before the start of classes on Friday, April 11 to protest the recently administered state English exams.

In Tribeca, the protesters marched and chanted in front of P.S. 234, and at the steps to P.S. 150 they held signs aloft. “Our kids deserve the best; We won’t accept this test,” read one. At P.S. 89 in Battery Park City they put their signatures to more than 500 postcards to elected officials, and near the entrance to the Spruce Street School they stood by the dozens with Principal Nancy Harris, her placard reading: "We demand better tests."

"Hey hey, ho ho. Unfair tests have got to go!" the demonstrators shouted near the entrance to P.S./I.S. 276 in southern Battery Park City. Among them was the school's principal, Terri Ruyter. To explain how unfair the third grade test was, she said that even she found it difficult.

"The first time you look at it you think, 'I'm just going to blow through this, right?' Then you start reading the questions and you're like, 'Oh, Lordy!'"

Principals and teachers who saw the test, which was given to third through eighth graders over three days, said many of the questions were poorly constructed, ambiguous and placed unnecessary pressure on the children. Nearly all of the educators reported seeing children break down in tears during the exam.

"There were things that were complicated without being challenging," said Tara Loughran, who has taught fifth grade at P.S. 89 for 12 years. "And I'm sorry, but any time a child cries in my presence when they're just trying to do their best, that's really upsetting to me."

Loughran said she found herself having to comfort and encourage the young test takers as she walked around the room. "I felt a little bit like a therapist," she noted.

In interviews, children talked about the lengthy process of going back and forth among different numbered paragraphs to seek out the right answer to a multiple choice question, sometimes with seemingly no correct response. "It would be complicated," said Saskia Penning, a P.S. 234 fifth grader. "You didn't really know what they were asking because they would give you these four answers and sometimes you didn't think any of them were right."

"Some kids didn't care that this was happening and were perfectly fine," added her friend and fellow fifth grader, Alex Grant. "But some other kids were really aggravated and angry."

P.S. 150 principal Jenny Bonnet called the experience "particularly abusive" to third graders.

"It's their first year of taking a test," she said. "They’re nervous about it to begin with and then they have something like this in front of them. It's just not appropriate."

To make matters worse, said P.S. 89 principal Ronnie Najjar, there was a third grade passage that had a "significant" typo that changed the meaning of the sentence.

"That right there was a huge, huge mistake," she said. "That was very discouraging."

A spokeswoman for NCS Pearson, the test maker, referred all questions to its client, the New York State Education Department. In an email, Jeanne Beattie, the department’s spokeswoman, defended the test, saying that it was “developed, edited and reviewed by New York State teachers. The assessments are challenging but fair, and they will provide valuable information for parents and teachers as we help students climb the ladder to success in college and careers.”

This is the second year that students in third through eighth grades have taken standardized state tests that are meant to show their proficiency with a set of performance expectations in literacy and math known as the Common Core standards. Both tests were produced by Pearson, a company with a five-year, $32 million contract with New York State. While there was criticism of last year's tests, educators had hoped their feedback would bring improvement. But the test this year, they said, was worse.

"I made it clear to parents that we're not protesting against testing in general and we're not against Common Core standards," said Nancy Harris. "It's specifically this test."

Teachers and principals, however, are forbidden by the state to reveal questions that might prove their point, another source of frustration over the exam.  "If it's not going to be a fair test then it should be transparent and we should be able to talk about it and people should be able to look at it," Bonnet said.

"What's the test for if I can't see what my daughter's done and what kind of progress she's made," said Anais Tekerian, the mother of a P.S. 150 third grader. "If I can't assess what these assessments are saying, that makes no sense to me."

Because the questions will remain under wraps, educators say there will be little or no useful feedback on the children's performance.

"This is not remotely about informing teachers or families about how to improve instruction or about giving parents accurate information about what they need to work on, or have mastery over," said P.S. 234 principal Lisa Ripperger, who helped organize the protests with Elizabeth Phillips, the principal of P.S. 321 in Park Slope, a school that protested against the exam the week before.

Jeanne Beattie, the Education Department spokeswoman, told the Trib that the questions are embargoed because there would not be enough of them for use in future tests “without a significant increase in field testing.” A quarter of the questions will be released in July, she said, and the data analysis will tell teachers “what was the most common mistake my students made on this question? What can I do next year to help students resolve that misconception?”

The information, she added, will “complement” what parents and educators learn about the children through their classroom work.

Pearson, the testing firm, is no stranger to controversy. In 2012, it came under fire for nonsensical passages on a reading test and errors in a math test. And last year, for a city "gifted and talented" test that it developed and scored, the company erroneously told 5,000 students that they did not make the cut for those programs.

"People who are paying for it, like state education officials, need to hold the test makers more accountable," Ripperger said.

And for good reason, said P.S. 89 fifth grader Matt Moran, who summed up the protesters’ message as well as anyone.

"I think it's ok if you test us," he said. "But if you test us unfairly, it's pointless."

— Additional reporting by Juliet Hindell and Nathalie Rubens