Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Has anyone opted out of State testing?

WRT funding implications, in many states federal and state funding of school districts is tied to participation rates on state-wide testing. The original intent was to make sure that districts did not exclude students with disabilities in an attempt to artificially inflate average test scores and/or disenfranchise students with disabilities. The NCLB indices, and associated state DOE indicators, are the main reason that schools (that do) push so hard for participation. It not only affects funding for the school, sometimes in a very direct way (fall below a certain participation percentage, lose certain types of funding), but also autonomy, as having indicators miss benchmarks eventually leads to DOE-mandated re-organization, which often starts with indiscriminate mass firings, and includes living under a microscope for quite a while.

Again in most states, state-wide testing is not allowed to be high-stakes for individual students until one reaches the high-school exit exams/end-of-course exams. Up until that last round of testing, all state-wide testing is supposed to be a measure of the effectiveness of the school (and teachers), without consequences to the individual student. Hence, not used in placement decisions.

Some might say these are additional arguments against mandated state-wide testing...at least one can understand better how administrations become so anxious about opting out/participation.

Yeah, I understand. And I looked into the funding issue here and it is affected but in a more indirect way. I actually did not opt my DS out in any sort of protest... I just thought it would not be good for him to sit through all of that testing. Especially when he has other tests that are important to his placement happening so much as well. I have a friend who keeps insisting that the scores of kids who need accommodations actually do not count. I figured she is misinformed but I did wonder... (then again, same woman also thought that only kiddos with ieps could opt out and no one else could legally opt out... so she was definitely misinformed about that.) I think if a parent really thinks it is not good for their child they should opt out. It's a shame though that in my state you have to say it is for a religious reason.

Ultimately, you have to do what is best for your DD. I did opt out my oldest DS one or two years during the middle school years but everyone was more than okay (he's sick/disabled and educated through their Home & Hospital division and never physically set foot in his enrolled school). I think in general some schools are actually glad to see students with disabilities opt out.

I would never opt out my two younger kids because our state tests are used for placement as well as provide substantial information not available from other tests. Our district also uses MAP, which may be useful to benchmark general progress in knowledge but would be a poor determinant, for instance, of ability to handle our specific GT Language Arts courses. This has to do with our district's heavy emphasis on literary anaylsis and writing from grade 1, which mirrors the state testing. There is also the comprehensiveness issue. For example, DS completes the MAP reading testing in about 30 minutes but needs a couple of hours to complete the state reading/language arts testing. There is a huge difference between reading a short blurb before clicking on a multiple choice answer and preparing a multi-paragraph essay after analyzing/pulling information from a couple of long documents.

I also think that you have to look at the culture in your state and district. DS/DD's school don't prep or otherwise make a big deal about the state testing but parents are told when it is and to make sure that their kids are well-fed and well-rested on test days and the school kind of celebrates when everyone is done. This means that in particular, if you have social kids, they may feel out of sync if all their friends talk about their experiences and they have no clue.