Gary Stern and Randi Weiner

More than 3,140 students in the Lower Hudson Valley sat out the recent state math tests, an 84 percent increase over the number who opted out from the ELA tests only four weeks earlier.

Overall, 3.4 percent of local students in grades 3-8 were directed by their parents to skip the math tests, according to a survey of 54 school districts in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties by The Journal News.

"When families saw some kids opting out from the ELA tests, some thought 'Next time around, I'm going to do it,'" said Lisa Davis, executive director of the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association. "Parents talk to other parents about what happens when your kid doesn't take the tests."

Mahopac saw 18.5 percent of eligible students bypass the math tests, the highest percentage in the region. Ten percent or more did not take the tests in Carmel, North Rockland and South Orangetown. Close behind were Nyack, Mount Pleasant, Lakeland and Ossining.

Advocacy groups that are critical of the state's education reforms have been calling on parents for months to not let their children in elementary and middle school take the new Common Core-based state tests. The term "opting out" has entered the lexicon even though the state does not recognize an option to skip the tests.

Victoria Caramante, president of the South Orangetown PTA Council, stopped her seventh-grade twins and fifth-grade daughter from taking the math tests. One of her middle-schoolers had chosen to take the ELA tests, but her other two children did not.

Caramante said she had been undecided about the tests, but she was angered by a provision in the state budget that prevents the use of test scores to decide student placements — a move designed to appease critics of the tests.

"To turn around and say the tests won't count is absolutely ridiculous," she said. "In order for the governor and Commissioner (John) King to truly hear the parents, I had to take a stand. The Common Core has not been rolled out properly and parents have been disregarded."

For teachers whose students take the tests, the results will still be used in calculating evaluations.

New York State Allies for Public Education, a group that urged parents to opt their kids out, found that more than 35,000 students statewide opted out from the ELA tests. Their district-by-district numbers are consistent with Journal News findings for the Lower Hudson Valley.

The group is far from completing its math-test tallies, but has already counted over 29,000 opt outs.

Dennis Tompkins, spokesman for the state Education Department, said the opt-out numbers do not detract from the significance and importance of the tests.

"We had more than a million kids taking the tests, so there's really no impact," he said.

Students who do not take the tests are not sanctioned by the state. But schools that have less than 95 percent participation for three straight years could have to produce an improvement plan for the state.

The state released new Common Core-based ELA and math tests last year. Only a third of students statewide hit "proficiency" targets on each set.

South Orangetown Superintendent Ken Mitchell, president of the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents, said that parent groups are becoming more politically involved because of dissatisfaction with the state's education agenda. One result is the growing number of kids skipping the tests, he said.

"It's not just about the tests, but about something larger, the future of public education," he said.

Many affluent districts had smaller opt-out numbers. But parents are protesting the tests in other ways.

Scarsdale Superintendent Michael McGill — whose district saw 47 students not take the math tests — noted that the district's Parent-Teacher Council is calling on the state to release data to support the validity of its tests.

"There certainly is serious pushback from the education community and that's different from what I've seen at any time in the recent past," said McGill, who is retiring after almost 30 years as a superintendent.

Test results are expected to be released in late summer.

Twitter: @garysternNY