NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATURE STATE OF NEW YORK ALBANY

Chancellor Merryl Tisch NYS Board of Regents 89 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12234 July 18, 2013 Dear Chancellor Tisch: We understand the Regents are meeting on July 22nd and 23rd and are writing to express our serious concerns regarding the negative impacts of over-testing as conveyed to us by numerous parents and educators over the past school year and at a recently held education forum on the impact of testing and mandates. We respectfully request that you give these concerns your full attention and take appropriate action to address them. Our bipartisan group of Capital Region legislators hosted a forum on June 5, 2013, entitled: K12 Education at a Crossroads: A Forum on the Impacts of Testing and Mandates. The forum was held in response to a number of emails, letters, and phone calls received concerning testing in our schools. Capital Region superintendents, teachers, parents, students, and business leaders spoke about how a dramatic increase in testing over the last year has negatively impacted students. The forums panelists spoke of the many ways over-testing is impacting students including: the time taken away from instruction; the overall stress of testing and negative effects on student self esteem; and the reduced emphasis on developing the type of creative thinking and problemsolving skills needed to prepare students for the 21st century workforce. While each panelist agreed that accountability is essential at every level of education, they all noted that the current level of testing was excessive and called for more autonomy for districts, transparency on testing material, and consistency in directives and deadlines. We recognize that a significant number of directives from the New York State Education Department (NYSED) are as a result of Race to the Top funding; however, the tests associated with the teacher and administrator evaluations, along with the rush to implement testing on the Common Core Curriculum are having a cumulative effect, which appears to be detrimental to student morale, learning and creativity while creating anxiety in the classroom. These same tests that are supposed to assist in measuring and improving education outcomes may instead negatively impact these outcomes, with student achievement suffering as a result. As a way to alleviate these concerns and growing evidence that the number of tests and directives may be counterproductive, we urge you to work with NYSED to consider the following: Place a moratorium on the high stakes consequences of testing related to the Common Core Curriculum; Reduce the overall number of tests (and combine tests where at all possible);

Decrease the amount of time students spend being tested, the length and duration of the tests, and the number of questions on each test; Ensure that the data and results from the tests be received in a timely way by the school districts so it can be useful to instructors.

Thank you in advance for your serious consideration in addressing these issues. We look forward to your response and would welcome a discussion. Sincerely,

Assemblymember Patricia Fahy

Senator Neil Breslin

Assemblymember John McDonald

Senator Cecelia Tkaczyk

Assemblymember Phil Steck

Assemblymember Peter Lopez

Assemblymember Steve McLaughlin

Assemblymember James Tedisco

c. Members of the NYS Board of Regents Speaker Sheldon Silver, NYS Assembly Assemblymember Catherine Nolan, Chair of NYS Assembly Education Committee Coalition Majority Leader Dean G. Skelos, NYS Senate Coalition Majority Leader Jeffrey D. Klein, NYS Senate Senator John J. Flanagan, Chair of NYS Senate Education Committee Dr. John B. King, Commissioner of NYS Education Department