Measure engagement and student hope to determine school effectiveness.

In the last year, the grassroots opt-out movement, which encourages parents to refuse to have their child take a standardized test, has shown the extreme response to testing in some areas of the country, particularly New York. Even though opting out has not caught on nationwide, that does not mean that Americans or public school parents are undecided about standardized testing. As this year’s poll shows, many do not like the increasing emphasis on testing.

In 1970, Americans showed support for testing. When we asked Americans that year if they wanted students in their local schools to take national tests so their educational achievement could be compared with students in other communities — 75% said yes.

FINDINGS
A strong majority (about eight in 10) of Americans believe how engaged students are with their classwork and their level of hope for the future are very important for measuring the effectiveness of the public schools in their community. Fewer rated the percentage of graduates attending college and getting a job right after high school as very important. Testing came in last as a measure of effectiveness with just 14% of public school parents rating test scores as very important, making it the last in the list of options. (Q1)

64% of Americans and a similar proportion of public school parents said there is too much emphasis on standardized testing in the public schools in their community with just 7% believing there’s not enough.(Q2)

When asked what ideas were most important for improving public schools in their community from a list of five options, testing ranked last in importance once again. But one-third of blacks and Hispanics rated testing as very important. (Q5) Blacks are more likely than whites (28% versus 11%) to say that student scores on standardized tests are very important in measuring the effectiveness of schools. (Q1)

When asked to select from four approaches that would provide the most accurate picture of a public school student’s academic progress, standardized testing was again at the bottom of the list when compared with three other indicators of progress. (Q3)

Americans split on whether parents should be allowed to excuse their child from taking one or more standardized tests: 41% said yes, 44% said no. A majority of blacks said parents should not be able to excuse their child from taking a standardized test. (Q4)

A majority of public school parents said they would not excuse their own child from taking a standardized test; nearly one-third said they would excuse their own child. Nearly three-quarters of blacks said they would not excuse their own child. (Q7)

Americans are ambivalent about the importance of comparing test scores for students in their local schools with students in other school districts, states, and nations. Nearly one-third of blacks said using standardized tests to compare their local schools with schools in other districts and other states is “very important;” only 15% of whites said the same. (Q6)

55% of Americans and 63% of public school parents oppose including student scores on standardized tests as part of teacher evaluations. (Q9)

Only 16% of public school parents strongly agreed that their child complains about taking too many standardized tests. Just 9% of Hispanic parents strongly agreed that their children complained about too many tests. (Q8)

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