Thousands of parents in New York opted to pull their children from Common Core standardized testing last week.
Advocacy groups estimated that more than 25,000 of the state's 1.2 million third- through eighth-graders skipped the three-day English language arts assessments. That's about double last year's number.
But on Monday's Capitol Pressroom on WBFO, State Education Commissioner John King downplayed the opt out issue.
"We won't have a firm number for many weeks. But based on media accounts, it's a very modest percentage," King said. "Last year, we were at 98.9 to 99 percent participation. We expect to be in the same range of participation again."
King said what concerns him the most of students opting out of the tests is the lack of information about how they're progressing on the skills they'll need for college and careers.