Why I’m Opting Out of Standardized Testing in this Non-Standard Year

This has been anything but a standard year in New York State schools. This year’s most important lessons — the need for responsive government, the limitations of our medical system and the interdependence of all people — will hardly be on the standardized tests New York State will administer this coming week.

New York State United Teachers union has led the fight against the developmentally inappropriate testing of our children. This year NYSUT has initiated a campaign to ensure that parents understand their right to opt out of these assessments. “This year has tested our kids enough. Parents: Know your rights to opt your kids out of the state tests,” the union campaign says.

I am exercising my right as a parent of an eighth grader to opt out of the New York State standardized tests this year. She attends only two days a week because of COVID-19 considerations and several days of 90 minute tests seems like squandering the precious little face time she has with her teachers.

As a mom and a former educator, I worry about the impact this testing has on my children. It raises their anxiety level and defines their learning in the narrowest of terms without any improvement in the quality of education they receive. Standardized tests are also poor predictors of college success. Grade Point Average, determined by teacher evaluations, is a five times stronger indicator of college success than standardized testing. Further these tests don’t measure the skills employers most desire. Communication and collaboration, emotional intelligence, executive functioning and problem solving are all at the top of employers’ must have skills and none of them are measured by these exams.

I am not inherently and completely opposed to standardized testing. Assuming experts can develop testing that eliminates class and race biases, standardized tests could be part of a holistic assessment of students, but not this year. I agree with New York State teachers’ position that “standardized tests are not the best way to measure a student’s development, and they are especially unreliable right now. Regardless of what flexibility the federal government provides, we have grave concerns that standardized tests can be administered in any sort of equitable way.”

When things get back to normal we need to have a national conversation about how useful or effective standardized tests are but this is not the time for that. Right now, I am following the advice of New York’s education professionals. I’ll opt-out and give myself, my kids and our teachers the break we all need.