United to Counter The Common Core Agenda Through Mobilization

  1. New York State Test Refusal Letter

    This form will guide you in crafting a test refusal letter for your children, suitable for any New York State school district. We ask for names and addresses as we are crafting a letter that must be mailed. None of this information will be shared with any third party.

  2. Step 1: Which tests are you refusing? For which children?
  3. Choose one selection based on whether you have more than one child and more than one parent (required)
    Use Single or Multiple Children(*)




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  4. Children's Names
    EXAMPLE, Dick, Jane, and Mary (required)(*)
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  5. Do you wish to refuse the State Tests in April/May?
    Given each year in 3rd through 8th grade, these are the too-long, opaque, and largely useless tests most people are talking about. There is no known or required consequence for refusing these tests; in fact, NYSED leans heavily on schools to NOT use these test results for things like promotion or placement in honors classes. SUGGESTED ANSWER: YES(*)


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  6. Do you wish to refuse any field tests?
    Given in all grades, the purpose of this test is to verify NEXT YEAR’s test questions by giving them to a selection of THIS YEAR’s students. Your children are being used as research rats, without permission or pay. If it was the state education department doing the testing, that might get some consideration - each set of students helps those coming up next year. However, the state tests are now created by a private company. The field tests are likewise created by the same private company, which then sells the resulting test questions back to the state. From an ethical standpoint, this is wrong. And those kids will never get back the hours of instructional time that they lost while taking these field tests. SUGGESTED ANSWER: YES(*)


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  7. Do you wish to refuse APPR tests?
    Given in all grades, some of the most popular pre-packaged tests include the AIMSweb and STAR assessments as well as "progress monitoring" tests. However, these are easily recognizable in that they’re short and come in as both a pre-test and post-test. These tests have the horrible fame of being given to children BEFORE they learn the material, resulting in self-esteem issues before the unit even begins. If your child is being tested on material not yet covered, it’s an APPR test. These tests are not meant to measure your child’s knowledge, but the teacher’s effectiveness. They also never appear on a report card and are roundly viewed as a poor way to evaluate a teacher. SUGGESTED ANSWER: YES(*)


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  8. Do you wish to refuse SLO tests?
    Given in all grades (depending on your school's APPR agreement), SLO tests often double as APPR tests, but SLO tests measure the student's progress from beginning to end of year. Again, they should not count towards your child's grade, but are used to evaluate the teacher. A few schools, however, use SLOs as part of the benchmarking to measure the success or failure of an IEP or 504 plan. SUGGESTED ANSWER: YES UNLESS YOUR SCHOOL USES THESE FOR IEP OR 504 BENCHMARKING.(*)


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  9. Do you wish to refuse the science tests?
    Given only in 4th and 8th grade, these tests are not common core aligned, are created and graded by NYS teachers, and are largely hands-on. The test itself presents no problem; it seems to be an example of a “good” test. However, the data from this test is sent to the state, so it will go into the data collection. SUGGESTED ANSWER: This one is highly dependent on you. The one upside of this test is that it will likely give you a fair idea of how well your child is doing academically, since math and reading are incorporated as part of the exam, and it is not common core-aligned. But it is data collection by the state.(*)


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  10. Step 2: Where will you mail this letter from / to?
  11. Parent's Names
    EXAMPLE: John and Jane Smith -or simply- Jane Smith (required)(*)
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  12. Parent's Street Address
    EXAMPLE: 123 Any Street, Apt B(*)
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  13. Parent's City, State, and Zip
    EXAMPLE: Anywhere, NY 14000(*)
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  14. Superintendent's Name
    EXAMPLE: Dr J R R Tolkein
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  15. School District Name
    EXAMPLE: Best Central School District -or- Best Union Free School District (*)
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  16. School District's Street Address
    EXAMPLE: Best Central School District -or- Best Union Free School District (*)
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  17. School District's City, State, and Zip
    EXAMPLE: Anywhere, NY 14000(*)
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  18. Step 3: Where do we send your completed refusal letter?
  19. Email Address
    Please enter YOUR email address. We will email your completed refusal letter to this address, along with instructions on how to send it, so please be sure it is spelled correctly! (required) Please do not send this email directly to your district or school email addresses.(*)
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  20. Select Today's Date To Timestamp This Form(*)

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