A proposed bill would allow an adult student or parent to opt their child out of standardized testing without facing repercussions from the school, but local districts say they already allow it.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kurt Bahr, R-St. Charles, would prohibit public districts and charters from making the testing a graduation requirement or punishing the students in any way for opting out.
Bahr said his bill is not meant to encourage parents to opt their children out of the testing, and part of the bill is to educate families about the importance of taking the test.
"For far too long districts have been able to unfortunately say, "Do this because I say so,' instead of informing parents about why (the testing) is important," he said.
He first heard parent concerns about the state standardized test after Missouri adopted some Common Core standards, which were created as a way for state scores to be comparable nationwide.
Common Core was part of a 2009 stimulus package and the federal education department's "Race to the Top" program. States that opted into Common Core had the option to choose from two testing consortiums, and Missouri chose the Smarter Balanced test.
However, 2014-15 was the first and only year Missouri participated in the assessment after the Missouri Legislature decided to drop the Common Core standards.
Bahr thinks fewer parents will want to opt their children out now that students aren't taking the Smarter Balanced test associated with Common Core. But he maintains families should have the choice to opt out without fear their children will face reprisal.
In Missouri, there isn't a formal opt-out process, but there are parents who have opted their children out of the tests, said Sarah Potter, communications coordinator for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Missouri law requires schools to test every student, but that law doesn't govern parents, she said.
"If parents don't want their child to take the test, there's not much the district can do about it," Potter said.
However, Bahr referenced a parent in Sikeston who claims her child was "punished" after she told the district she didn't want him taking the test.
According to an article from KFVS, the Sikeston mother said her son was told he couldn't participate in the reward days for students who took the test, and that he would be missing recesses.
The assistant superintendent said in the article that only students who took the test and followed classroom expectations were eligible for the rewards, but that isn't meant to punish students who opted out.
Bahr also said he heard a mother of a 9-year-old girl give a testimony at a State Board of Education meeting that her daughter was expelled because she didn't take the test.
Potter said DESE has heard stories like that floating around, but whenever the department checked into them further they found the stories were untrue.
State law requires local school boards to establish written policies regarding student participation in the state assessment and to provide them to students and parents at the beginning of each school year.
Currently, federal law maintains 95 percent of the students participate in the state standardized test.
If that 5 percent threshold is exceeded, then the district doesn't get any of the points for that exam of the Annual Performance Report.
Standardized test scores make up the 56 points of academic achievement and the 14 points of subgroup achievement on the APR, which is scored out of five categories and worth 140 points possible.
Local districts are concerned that if enough students opt out, it could hurt their APR scores.
Larry Linthacum, superintendent of Jefferson City Public Schools, said another concern is the state tests are one measure of student learning and if a lot of students opt out, then the scores aren't a true reflection of how well the entire student body is learning.
"You don't opt out of paying taxes," Linthacum said. "Usually part of school is being assessed. What's the objective of opting out?"
Linthacum said there are parents who have excused their students from the test, and the district does not "punish" any student for doing so.
Jim Jones, Blair Oaks superintendent, said his district also allows students to opt out without repercussions.
Jones made the same argument in favor of the state test: the district wants to test all students to assess how well they're learning.
He likened the assessment scores to basketball.
"You wouldn't want to take free-throw shots in the dark," Jones said. "If we keep shooting to the right, we use (the assessment scores) to adjust and improve. Without the whole data we may continue to shoot to the right."
He doesn't think opting out has a positive result.