City opt-out rate lower than suburbs

Eighteen percent of Rochester School District students in grades 3-8 refused to take the recent three-day math test, the district disclosed Monday.

Unlike most districts across the state, which released their refusal numbers while the tests were taking place, Rochester waited until after they ended to compile its statistics. The refusal rate for the English language arts test was 16 percent.

Those numbers are somewhat higher than reported totals in Syracuse, Buffalo and other large cities across the state. For instance, Syracuse reported 9 percent of students refusing math and 4.6 percent refusing English.

On the other hand, the city rates are lower than any other school in Monroe County. The next lowest is Brighton, with 21.9 percent refusing math and 19.6 percent refusing ELA.

On the whole, about 15,400 students in Monroe County opted out from at least one of the tests, a rate of about 31.5 percent. That is more than six times higher than the 5 percent threshold the New York State Education Department warned districts not to cross before testing began.

The city district is unlike the suburbs in that educational and social conditions vary widely among its schools. World of Inquiry School 58 on University Avenue, one of the most popular schools in the district, may have had the highest refusal rate in the entire county; parents reported it at more than 80 percent.

On the other hand, some city schools could count their refusers on one hand. A district spokeswoman said school-by-school numbers are still being compiled.

The city district was the most insistent in urging its students not to refuse the tests. Superintendent Bolgen Vargas wrote to parents, "I must request that every eligible child take the ELA and math assessments. If you have concerns about the content of the tests or how the results are used, I respectfully suggest that having your children 'refuse the test' is not the best way to address these adult issues."

Beverly Burrell-Moore, the district's chief of elementary schools, took a more menacing approach in an email to administrators the day before testing began: "Please identify teachers who you have evidence as utilizing their classrooms as 'political soapboxes.' I need this updated information ... for follow-up."

At some schools, the rate varied greatly from grade to grade as well. Across the district, refusal rates were higher for older students: 20 percent ELA and 24 percent math for eighth-graders, compared to 14 percent ELA and 13 percent math for third-graders.

The urban-suburban divide in the refusal numbers was a delicate subject during the two weeks of testing. A pro-testing organization put out a study of 2014 data showing opt-out rates were higher in affluent suburban districts, implicitly charging those suburban parents with neglecting poorer students in their zeal.

Indeed, excluding the city, the suburban math refusal rate was 37.7 percent, nearly twice the city rate. Fairport had about two-thirds of its students refuse both the math and ELA tests.

"No one cared when our kids were having problems with the test, but now because your kids are too, we're supposed to be up in arms?" asked Makita Saloane, chairwoman of the Rochester Parent Council. "You just want to make sure we're included so it can make a bigger noise."

Some testing advocates responded that poor urban districts in fact stand to gain the most from breaking the current state testing regime. It is those schools that are likely to be punished for failing to meet standards, as happened at East High School.

The state education department is currently working to create a new teacher evaluation system, as dictated in the 2015 state budget agreement.

At the same time, Congress is making progress toward a reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, commonly known as No Child Left Behind. At least one proposal would eliminate some of the current law's most punitive measures and restore more leeway to states.

JMURPHY7@DemocratandChronicle.com

Monroe County refusal rates