Parent anger at high-stakes testing stoked by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s test-focused education agenda has fueled a growing opt-out movement in New York State.

Some 191,000 students in grades 3 to 8 (17 percent of the 1.1 million possible test takers) opted out of the state ELA exam and at least 150,000 (13.7 percent) opted out of the math tests this year, according to unofficial statewide tallies by United to Counter the Core, a statewide anti-testing group.

The opt-out movement is strongest in suburban school districts, but the movement is gathering steam in New York City. Parts of Manhattan and District 15 in Brooklyn had high numbers of opt-outs this year, but those refusing the tests were still a tiny share of the total number sitting for the exams in the city.

Parents are divided

A Siena College poll released on April 27 found parents divided on the issue. Statewide, 50 percent of voters polled said parents were right to opt their children out of the state tests, while 44 percent said parents should have had their children take the exams. Among New York City voters polled, 38 percent thought parents were right to opt out, while 57 percent said it was wrong.

If testing participation falls below 95 percent in a particular school district, the state has the power to withhold Title I funding earmarked for schools that serve poor children. But the specter of New York City possibly losing school aid did not sway the parents interviewed for this article.

Instead, in deciding whether their children should sit for the exams, the parents considered the impact of high-stakes testing on their children’s emotional well-being, the value of the tests and the possible academic consequences of opting out.

The 2014 state budget included a provision that prohibits school districts from using Common Core test scores “solely or primarily” in decisions to promote students to the next grade. And state test scores will not be part of the students’ permanent record.

But high scores on the state tests can open doors for New York City students seeking entry to competitive middle schools and high schools, and some parents were not willing to risk losing those choices.

For some parents, the removal of the test scores as a factor in promotion made it easier to pull their children out of testing. Sharona Rosenrauch, a speech teacher at PS 60 on Staten Island, said she decided that her 12-year-old daughter Miki, who is in grade 7 at IS 72, would not sit for the state exams for the first time only after she attended Community Education Council meetings where she was assured there would be no ramifications for skipping the test.

For other parents, like Bryan D’Ottavi, who has a son in grade 4 at PS 14 in Throgs Neck in the Bronx, it had the opposite effect. “The only reason I didn’t opt out was because I learned the test wouldn’t be held against them for promotion,” said D’Ottavi, who is the president of the District 8 Community Education Council. “I tell my kid, ‘Do your work, study, but don’t stress the test so much. Read the question carefully, the answer is in there, and you’ll do OK.’”

Shonn Harrison, whose daughter attends 3rd grade at a Title I school in Brooklyn, said her daughter took the tests “because I want to give her a chance. She might do better than I think.” But she, too, expressed concerns with the focus on testing. “I grew up with standardized testing, and it was not as stressful as it is now,” Harrison said.

Parents who decided to opt out their children were scathing in their assessment of the quality and worth of the nine hours of tests.

Fairness of tests at issue

Rosenrauch said she was “all for testing, but it has to be fair testing. I’m not even against the Common Core, but test kids on what they are learning. Give the schools all the resources they need, and make sure the test is age- and grade-appropriate.”

She said tests should give parents and teachers information on each child’s strengths and weaknesses. “My daughter doesn’t need to take a test so the state can get statistics it doesn’t share,” she said. “That’s ludicrous.”

Julie Stark, whose twin daughters attend 4th grade at the Children’s Workshop School in the East Village, criticized the tests as flawed and expensive. “I’m not against exams, just prepackaged ones,” said Stark, who opted out her daughters for the second year in a row.

Stark said everyone should be concerned about how the current testing regime is used to evaluate teachers. “I don’t want teachers penalized if students don’t have support at home and if teachers aren’t given the support they need to teach the Common Core,” she said.

Charmaine Dixon, whose 3rd-grade daughter did not sit for the tests, lamented the focus on test prep starting in the 3rd grade.

“It was such a joy to see her learning from kindergarten to 2nd grade,” recalled Dixon, the PTA president at PS 203 in Flatlands, her daughter’s school. “At 3rd grade, everything changed — everything became so robotic.”