Hundreds of students walk out of schools from Las Cruces to Albuquerque to protest state test

Students frustrated over a new standardized test are planning school walkouts in protest across New Mexico.

From Las Cruces to Albuquerque, students are calling for walkouts Monday through social media as districts try to work on preventing the protests.

The backlash comes as millions of U.S. students start taking new, more rigorous exams aligned with Common Core standards.

In New Mexico, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC tests, start Monday.

State Education Secretary Hanna Skandera defends the exams, telling the Santa Fe New Mexican ( http://goo.gl/G7cxFa ) in an interview that much of the concern about the tests is based on misinformation.

Retired educator Moises Venegas says the planned walkout remind him of the late 1960s when Albuquerque students protested the Vietnam War and school conditions.

Hundreds of students walked out of their high schools in Las Cruces, including at least 100 at Las Cruces High, nearly 150 at Mayfield, about 24 at Onate, and nearly 24 at Cenennial.

Chants and signs included sayings, “We are not a test score.”

It wasn’t just students who joined in the protest. Parents also gathered outside the Las Cruces Public Schools administration building, yelling, “More teaching, less testing!”

One parent told ABC-7 that her high school daughter will not take the test and she is OK with her getting a certificate of completion and not a diploma.

A walkout is considered an unexcused absence for high school students. If they use up their three attempts at taking exam, they put high school diploma in jeopardy, since PARCC is requirement for graduation.