The New York Mills Teachers Association recently passed a resolution asking NYSUT’s Dick Iannuzzi to lead a statewide boycott of the grade 3-8 state assessments.  Here is the full resolution…

RESOLUTION TO BOYCOTT NEW YORK STATE GRADES 3-8 ASSESSMENTS
Tuesday, February 11, 2014

WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessments have proven to be sub-standard, unreliable measurements of student achievement and learning; and

WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessments require unreasonable amounts of testing time (700 minutes each spring), not reflective of best practice pedagogy; and

WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessments interrupt valuable instruction/learning time which can never be replaced or retrieved; and

WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessment contents are not reviewable to use as a guides or supplements to instruction; and

WHEREAS, the New York State Grades 3-8 assessments require the excessive expenditure of tax dollars without providing commensurate educational value, quality test construction, content or design;

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the New York Mills Teachers Association calls upon the President of the New York State United Teachers, Richard Iannuzzi, to lead the NYSUT membership in a statewide boycott of the Spring 2014 New York State Grades 3-8 assessments.

We’ll keep an eye out to see if there is a clear response from Iannuzzi.  Additionally we should be looking in a direction other than just Dick Iannuzzi.  Given the way NYSUT elections are run, there stands a very good chance that NYSUT delegates will have elected a new president by the time the state assessments in math are administered.  Given that fact I would think it’s important to know how NYSUT Presidential candidate Karen Magee feels about leading a boycott of state tests.  Should grade 3-8 teachers be preparing to boycott the math assessments if Magee is elected president?  This is a significant question that needs to be answered as NYSUT delegates wade through the rhetoric to make their decisions before voting on April 5th.  Unfortunately it is tough to know pretty much anything that Karen Magee thinks.  She has seemingly entered the Witness Protection Program since declaring her candidacy in mid-January.  It’s an odd tactic for a “grassroots” challenger to take.  Of course when you have the reformy Mike Mulgrew’s curiously immediate endorsement and it’s accompanying 800 delegate votes maybe your best bet is to lay low and allow yourself to be propped up as though this were a scene from Weekend at Bernie’s.