Parents plan boycott of testing “field tests”

New York City public school students have taken English tests for years. Math tests, too. This year, 10 “diagnostic” tests have been added to the menu in the hope that they will improve results on the real thing. But when parents at two Manhattan elementary schools discovered that their children had been selected to participate in “field tests,” or tests to help the state’s testing company try out questions for future tests, they decided to draw the line.

At a news conference in front of City Hall on Tuesday, January 22, the parents said they were organizing a boycott of the field tests to be given at their children’s schools—Public Schools 40 and 116—later this week. Because of requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind Law coupled with the City Education Department’s decision to raise the number of diagnostic tests given to third through eighth graders—last year there as many as six—New York City’s public school students are taking more standardized tests than ever. And so the boycotters seized on the field tests, saying the testing company should figure out another way to conduct its research. Read about the controversy in The New York Times online.