Keshia Clukey is reporting at Politico New York state education commissioner MaryEllen Elia [EH-lee-uh] has begun a battle to stop the rapidly growing opt-out movement before the state exams next year, reaching out to department attorneys and meeting with superintendents. Elia said, “We’re trying to pull together a tool kit...to support superintendents in how we can communicate in a much more effective way to people across the state." That kit will include legal information, she said. Educators are hoping the toolkit will include guidelines on what is and what is not ethical for teachers or school administrators to say publicly about the exams, an issue that has become controversial across the state. In April, 20 percent of the 1.1. million eligible third through eighth graders statewide refused to take the state math and English language arts exams. At an Educators 4 Excellence event last week Elia said she believed opt out was “unreasonable,” and called it “unethical” for teachers to participate. The commissioner plans to have the toolkit in place before the tests next April. Read the full story at Politico New York.