46% of Worcester Central School Students Opt Out of State Testing

There are 157 students that attend 3rd through 8th grade at Worcester Central School and 72 of them, with their parents permission, opted out of taking the state tests that were recently administered.

This translates to 46%, while the federal government says schools must have 95% of their students take mandated tests. Worcester School Superintendent Bill Diamond describes this as a "new phenomenon," and had further comments:

Diamond says there is an active group in the community that has been speaking out against state testing so the numbers of students refusing the tests did not come as a total surprise.