A few parents still opt their children out of state test
As millions of students across Texas took the state-mandated State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness on Wednesday, Jennifer Richard’s daughter sat at home.
The Humble ISD fifthgrader is not physically ill, but Richard said she is sick of the state’s reliance on standardized test scores to make decisions that affect students, teachers, schools and districts statewide.
“There is so much emphasis put on STAAR throughout school year,” Richard said. “I find up until that point, until STAAR happens, kids are so focused on STAAR completion work that they’re being taught the test.”
Only about 35,000 Texas students were counted as “not tested” in the state’s accountability ratings last year, and since 2012, only about 1 percent of all eligible students have not taken the STAAR test each year. The state does not separate that data to show who missed the test intentionally and how many students missed it due to medical issues or emergencies. That data likely counts only students who stayed home during the entire testing window and excludes those who may have opted out of one of several tests, said Scott Placek, an Austin-based attorney who represents families who opt out of STAAR.
Still, Placek said he has not seen as much interest in refusing to take the test as he has in previous years.
“I wouldn’t say it’s waned, but I don’t think it increased in this year the way it has in previous years,” Placek said. “I don’t think it’s as hot an issue as it has been. I don’t know if it’s because of assessment fatigue, parents saying ‘STAAR’s here, might as well get used to it.’ Or is it the case they don’t believe opt-out is an effective way to protest? I don’t know.”
The number of students across the state who do not take the tests this week likely will not be available until the Texas Education Agency releases its accountability ratings in the fall.
Opting out of statemandated standardized tests became a national phenomenon about five years ago, when parents in Long Island and other large cities in New York began refusing to let their children participate in testing. Parents at the time pointed to an increasing amount of classroom time spent testing and consequences tied to the assessments, many of which were created at the behest of the national No Child Left Behind Act that beefed up the federal government’s role in state education systems and required more testing.
The opt-out movement reached a fever pitch in 2015 and 2016, when some states saw as many as 10 to 20 percent of their students refuse to take the tests. No Child Left Behind was replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015, which gives states more leeway in terms of testing.
Since then, some states, including Idaho and Rhode Island, have dropped requirements for high school exit exams. Maryland put a cap on the amount of time districts can spend testing their students.
Instead of rolling back testing requirements, however, states like Texas have increased the consequences and accountability measures tied to standardized testing in recent years. In 2015, for example, Texas legislators passed a law requiring traditional public schools to close if they fail to meet the state’s academic standard on the STAAR test for five years in a row. That same year, lawmakers passed a law that will grade schools and districts on an A-through-F letter grade system. Districts will be rated on that new system this fall, and individual schools will be subject to the grading system in fall 2019.
Some of those consequences may not affect school districts impacted by Hurricane Harvey this year. While the TEA has remained mum on whether it will issue an accountability reprieve for districts impacted by the storm, Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced in December that fifth- and eighthgrade students in Harveyaffected districts who failed or refused to take the STAAR three times would not have to go through a Grade Placement Committee to advance to the next grade. Instead, Morath is leaving decisions about whether to hold back such students to local school districts.
The reduced consequences made Richard more confident in her decision to keep her 11-yearold daughter home this week so she can avoid testing and retesting days.
Although Richard’s daughter is opting out of the state tests, her performance on mock versions of the assessment has affected her standing in class.
“My daughter had just barely missed one reading question, otherwise she would have passed the mock part of reading test. The next day I got email from her teacher recommending my daughter for reading tutorials,” Richard said. “I said she’s not doing that when she’s had A’s in report card all year long, but now the school wants her to do tutorials because she didn’t pass a mock test.”