In December U.S. Education Secretary John King proposed new regulations for Common Core testing in order to increase test participation. The Education Department cautioned that schools with test participation rates below 95 percent are at a risk of losing federal aid.
This year more than half of Long Island grade schoolers opted out of the exams. Now the New York State Board of Regents is discussing how these proposed regulations could affect local schools.
The new regulations would be part of the Every Student Succeeds Act signed by President Obama in December. Under ESSA, the federal government cannot evaluate teachers based on test scores, unlike the No Child Left Behind Act.
The new legislation leaves the decision on how to evaluate teachers up to the state.
