As students continue to finish taking end-of-the-year standardized tests, cities in New York reportedly have seen fewer student opt-outs from exams compared to suburban areas, according to The New York Daily News.

"About 98 percent of schoolkids in third through eighth grades in the state’s five largest cities took standardized tests in April, according to a tally of unofficial opt-out counts compiled by the pro-testing group High Achievement New York," the article said.

In general, unofficial results have revealed that suburban and rural school districts have seen higher numbers of opt-outs in comparison to urban areas.

"Loy Gross of United 2 Counter, a group opposed to the Common Core curriculum and related standardized tests, has been collecting both self-reported and official data from across the state. She said her estimates so far show the number of urban schools with students opting out increased roughly 10% over last year, while it jumped about 50% in rural schools," according to the article.

Some city districts did see fairly higher opt-out numbers than others. In District 15 in Brooklyn, approximately 11 percent of students refused to take the tests.

The opt-out movement-parent, student, and teacher resistance to state-administered exams demonstrated by a refusal to take them- has surged throughout this year's testing season in the state of New York.

Some publications, such as the New York Daily News, speculate that affluent districts are more likely to support the movement versus low-income ones; this could very well be a factor in the discrepancy in numbers across suburban and urban districts.

Read the full article here and comment below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

05/11/2015