Lawmakers Consider Letting Students Opt Out Of More Standardized Tests

The Legislature is considering a bill that would allow students to opt out of standardized tests administered by local school districts.

The legislation is under review after a school year in which a record number of Wisconsin students opted out of the Badger Exam, a statewide standardized test designed to measure academic achievement. More than 8,000 students opted out of the exam, which was at the center of the debate over the state’s adoption of national Common Core standards.

Republican state Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt said his bill to allow even more opt-outs will force school districts to do a better job of explaining to parents how they’re using the test results.

“There are a lot of people questioning standardized testing,” said Thiesfeldt. “If you can’t explain it then you should really re-evaluate why it is that you’re having this test being taken.”

Opponents of the bill say the local standardized tests are needed to help teachers assess whether the curriculum they’re using is working to boost student learning. They say if too many students opt out, test results would be unreliable.

Thiesfeldt said his bill would not affect weekly quizzes and final exams for specific courses, just the standardized tests that measure overall knowledge in a subject area like math, English or social studies. But opponents like Jeffrey Pertl, a senior advisor at the state Department of Public Instruction say the decision on whether to allow opt-outs of locally administered achievement test should be left up to local districts.

Pertl said Wisconsin students overall do well on national standardized tests, but there’s a significant achievement gap between the scores of white and black students — a disparity that standardized tests have helped reveal. He said the DPI is worried that allowing more opt-outs could end up skewing the results, making schools look like they’re either doing better or worse than they actually are.

Thiesfeldt said he wants to make sure parents have the right to opt their children out of testing if they want to, but he’s convinced not enough of them will exercise that right to affect the reliability of the test results.