PHOENIX — Parents won’t be able to opt their children out of standardized tests in public schools.
But their children may get some additional choices.
On an 18-11 vote, the Senate on Monday killed SB 1455, which would have expanded what is essentially a parental bill of rights. It specifically would have said that parents could refuse to let their children take assessments approved by the state Board of Education.
Arizona does testing to ensure that students are making satisfactory progress. The tests also allow comparison among students at different schools.
There’s also a requirement under federal law for states to test at least 95 percent of all students every year, with those who do not comply potentially facing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal aid.
Much of the opposition has focused on the AzMERIT test, which has been adopted by the education board. It is linked to the Common Core academic standards that have provoked a great deal of controversy.
But Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, said the issue is deeper than that.
“These parents that have been contacting me about this issue believe that their inalienable rights over their children take precedence over what you say they should do,” Allen told colleagues. “It’s important that we empower parents, that we tell parents that they are in charge of their children. When we have a vote like that, we are telling parents, ‘No, we know what’s best for your children.’”
Allen also said parents never get to see the test results, but instead only get a score. Who does get that information, she complained, is a “behavioral company” that designs the tests “who has all kinds of ideas about how you should test children, not just on the knowledge that they know but how they think.”
Senators were much more kind to HB 2544.
It requires the state Board of Education to adopt a menu of achievement assessments from which local school districts can choose. And if the schools don’t like what’s on that list, they can petition the board to add something else.
That measure, which already has been approved by the House, now goes to the governor.
Rep. Paul Boyer, R-Phoenix, who crafted the measure, said he believes that testing is appropriate. But Boyer said he does not necessarily believe that AzMERIT — or any other specific test — is always the right choice in every situation.
He said this is not a wide-open invitation for schools to simply come up with their own tests and then declare that all their students are doing well. Instead, it requires the board, in deciding which are acceptable, to approve only those where there is evidence that the assessment is of high quality and that the tests meets or exceeds the board’s adopted academic standards.
For example, Boyer said the Scholastic Aptitude Test taken by high schoolers for college admission might qualify.
He acknowledged that allowing students in the more than 200 school districts to take different tests might lead to problems in comparing academic performance. But he crafted the measure to require proof that the test results “can be equated for state accountability programs” to ensure there is an apples-to-apples evaluation.
Boyer said there’s another benefit to allowing alternatives to the current AzMERIT test. He said it could reduce the number of duplicative tests now being administered and the classroom time involved.
Not every school will have the same freedom. Schools with a D or F rating on academic performance would still be required to administer only the test chosen by the state education board.
