Opting out of school tests

[TwoEdgedSword]

One of my kids is dual enrolled PT at the highschool only taking a couple courses. The highschool sent a letter letting us know there will be three days of testing for our state. One is SAT--of course he will be there for that. One is testing employability skills and one is a science/social studies test.

 

Anyone opt out of the second two types of tests? Did you get pushback for it? I wouldn't mind so much if this kid wasn't already maxed out.

[FaithManor]

My senior year, way back in the day, my parents opted me out of a bunch of this kind of testing the week I was taking the ACT because I had two college auditions the week before, and two more the week after. It was all just too much. There was not push back. Now that said, this many years later, I am not certain what schools would say.

 

It doesn't seem to me that an employability skills test would be something they could make mandatory. I would certainly opt my child out if I thought it was too much, and especially these days with so much of merit aid riding on the SAT/ACT.

[yvonne]

Your state home school organization could probably tell you what the legal options are for opting out.  In our state, we cannot take advantage of classes at the local public schools, but we can homeschool under a public charter. If we do, we have to take state tests, also, but there are some ways to opt out.

 

Thinking of state tests as a cost of doing business with the public charter makes it more palatable to us. When we have a child with a public charter, we do have them do the state testing.  State tests are of no direct benefit whatsoever to us. However, the public school or charter is required to do it. As AZ Homeschool Mom points out below, there are consequences to the charter/school if enough students opt out.

Edited April 5, 2016 by yvonne

[HS Mom in NC]

I don't have a dog in that fight because my kids never did any ps at all, but that's an issue that comes up in my part of the woods a lot.

 

We have a part time public charter school that caters entirely to homeschoolers. Any number of classes can be taken if there's room.  Most of the parents have opted out of state testing for quite a while and it's nearly sunk them. They finally had to write a letter last year to the parents explaining 2 things: 

 

1. You took taxpayer funded services.  Testing gives an accounting to the the taxpayers for their significant financial investment.

 

2. Opting out by enough people means the school is earning a D rating in our state. D ratings are a bad reflection on the school and the students' academic performances.

It's the only school in the area that is especially for homeschoolers and no one is going to be interested in starting another one even though classes fill up instantly the first day of registration because the parents are putting the school in a difficult position by refusing testing.  Plenty of taxpayers who aren't fans of public charter schools and homeschooling are taking note and pointing out that it's a nearly failing school.

[Carol in Cal.]

I opted DD out of her 8th grade state exams in our public charter, but did so knowing that the next year she would be in brick and mortar school.  I'm not sure whether the charter would have allowed us to come back the next year after we did that.  It was in her best interests--she was taking algebra but they refused to give her the algebra 8th grade test, for complicated reasons that were entirely their fault, and so I decided that I was not willing to have her spend any time brushing up her prealgebra and taking the state test.  In prior years I had always gone along with it.  I think there is some usefulness to getting kids accustomed to taking standardized tests while they are homeschooling, and it was good for the school's funding.

 

Here in CA schools lose a great deal of money if less than 95% of the kids take the state exams, so they often lie to parents and say that they are required.  But parents can opt out of them, and should do so if it's in their child's best interests, like for example if they have a 2nd grader who can't read yet and would be overwhelmed by the test to the point of despair.

[Melissa B]

My dd takes classes at the local high school. But, it isn't called dual enrollment. She is simply a homeschooler taking classes part time. She opts out of all school testing not related specifically to her elective classes. It has never been a problem. She generally stays home on school-wide testing days.

[TwoEdgedSword]

Yes that's our situation too Melissa, just PT enrollment at the local public h.s.

And AZ homeschool mom, I appreciate you addressing the potential pushback. I can see why it's important for the school. Although here it is a pure public school, so I'm not sure if they care if their one homeschooler misses a test.

They've been really great with us though, so I don't want to change that.