Yuen: Why Minnesota high school students shouldn’t opt out of standardized tests

Standardized test scores are not the end all and be all. But they matter. At least, they should.

Testing season is wrapping up in Minnesota schools. Every spring, students around the state are asked to give their best shot at the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests, known as MCAs, to gauge their understanding of math, reading and science.

In many Minnesota high schools, a startlingly high proportion of students refuse.

At Camden High School (formerly known as Patrick Henry) in north Minneapolis, nearly 8 out of 10 sophomores refused to take the reading MCAs last school year. About two-thirds of juniors at Farmington and Shakopee high schools said “nah” to the math assessments. In some more affluent suburban high schools, such as Wayzata, nearly a third of 11th-graders also skipped the math component.

The reasons why parents excuse their children from standardized testing are myriad. When pressed why, parents often say they’re pushing back on what they believe to be a culture of over-testing in our kids’ public schools.

Test objectors span the political spectrum. Some progressives and families of color believe the exams have baked-in cultural or racial biases that don’t accurately reflect their students’ knowledge. Teachers unions have also been skeptical toward the assessments, preferring a more holistic approach toward gauging student proficiency.

A smaller percentage of parents on the far right don’t believe in government collecting data on their children.

And education-reform advocate Daniel Sellers, who supports testing, said he’s anecdotally noticed another trend under foot.

“I think there’s a growing movement among very privileged parents who don’t want their kids to experience any pressure or disappointment, kids who’ve always gotten an A or a blue ribbon,” said Sellers, whose kids attend an elementary school in Wayzata. “They don’t want their kids to experience the anxiety that comes along with testing.”

The state of Minnesota recognizes the right of parents to excuse their children from standardized tests. For those kids who have debilitating anxiety or religious holidays, it is reasonable that they would bypass the exams.

But the opt-out rates we are seeing in several dozen high schools across the state are mind-bogglingly high. As imperfect as the MCAs are, they offer the most uniform measurement of how each school in Minnesota is performing. High opt-out rates can skew a school’s data, potentially rendering the results meaningless.

After I bemoaned that Minnesota students were underperforming on standardized tests years after COVID-19, a teacher from greater Minnesota wrote me to say the data from her school would be deemed invalid by statisticians. About half of the kids at her high school opt out of the MCAs, including “some of our brightest students,” she added.

She said ACT scores are a better measurement because students care more about their performance. But they are still imperfect; not every student takes the ACT.

Schools’ reputations can take a dent when families opt out of the MCAs. The state Education Department counts their performance as “not proficient,” artificially dragging down their school’s overall test scores.

Test scores matter to parents like me, who want a data point to see how well my kids’ school is teaching to Minnesota’s academic standards. The scores also matter to families who are scouring school-rating sites as they consider which neighborhoods to raise their children.

“When our MCA numbers are low, there are implications,” said LaNisha Paddock, principal of St. Louis Park High School. “A school is a centerpiece to the entire community. When people are searching for places to move to or schools to put their kids into, decisions are made based on how well the schools are doing. We want accurate data to share with people who we might be a prospective home for.”

The good news is that schools can reverse the opt-out trend. A few years ago, St. Louis Park High School started a campaign to convince parents and students that those grueling exams were worth sitting through. In 2019, only half of the students took the tests. But last year, more than 80% took both reading and math.

What worked? It involved communicating with families, through parent meetings and a video, explaining the importance of the tests. The data helps inform teachers about gaps in learning so they can adjust their practice, Paddock said. They can also hold the school accountable for high-quality instruction.

While the school’s MCA scores haven’t risen dramatically with increased student participation, “now we know where we need to focus,” she said.

Sellers, who is executive director of the Ciresi Walburn Foundation, said state leaders can make the MCAs more meaningful to parents by releasing their students’ results sooner, rather than having to wait until fall to receive last spring’s scores. More timely results can prompt parents to advocate for interventions and support their kids at home.

Maybe a reframing about what tests actually measure would encourage more families to opt in. They don’t define a child. They can’t predict whether they’ll be wildly successful in life. Tests can prepare kids for other standardized tests, which they’ll have to take if they want to become lawyers, doctors, or electricians, or many other professions.

Test scores are just one indicator, along with grades and work samples, that can speak to a child’s learning and growth. And they’re the most uniform measurement we have to answer the question: Are my kids at grade level, learning the standards that we as Minnesotans have set for our students? That’s a data point worth knowing.