When Erin Pryor Pavlica’s son was in fourth grade last spring at St. Paul’s Four Seasons A+ Elementary, she gave him the option of skipping Minnesota’s standardized math and reading tests.

“He’s like, ‘No way, I work too hard in class,’ ” she said.

But this year, she’s filing opt-out papers for her son and her third-grade daughter.

“After we got the test results, he was like, ‘Huh?’ ” Pryor Pavlica said. “It didn’t reflect his abilities, at all.”

As for her daughter, she said, the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments would “crush her spirit, because she doesn’t read well.”

Test opt-outs were fairly rare last year in St. Paul Public Schools. There was just one opt-out on the math MCA for every 164 completed tests.

But this spring, the St. Paul Federation of Teachers is encouraging more families to skip the state and federally mandated exams to call attention to missed learning time and undue anxiety.

“When parents say enough is enough, that is the way to push the district and state policymakers to reduce testing,” union president Denise Rodriguez said.

NO DEAL ON TEST LIMITS

In 2014, the union persuaded the school district to reduce the time spent on testing by 25 percent.

But when it pressed for more test reduction during recent contract negotiations, the union could not get the district to agree. The union wanted another 25 percent reduction in time spent on test preparation and administration and for the district to make an opt-out form available to parents online.

“We were very disappointed,” Rodriguez said.

Conversations will continue even though the contract has been settled. However, Michelle Walker, the district’s chief executive officer, said, “At this point, we are not planning to change our practices.”

OPT-OUT PROCESS

State law gives parents the right to opt out, but the St. Paul district doesn’t advertise the option.

Typically, Walker said, parents opt out through their child’s school. Principals require a separate letter for each test the child will skip, and they talk parents through the consequences of the decision.

According to an information sheet the district made available:

A student who doesn’t test proficient on the eighth-grade reading MCA — or an alternative test — can’t enroll in post-secondary courses as a sophomore.

At the school level, large numbers of opt-outs hurt the validity of the tests.

And opt-outs limit the district’s ability to judge the effectiveness of the curriculum.

During a recent school board meeting, Superintendent Valeria Silva expressed some solidarity with critics of standardized tests.

“We know that the testing does not always measure what the kids know, and that has been a very loud and clear concern from our staff,” she said.

At the same time, Silva said, it will be harder to judge the performances of students and schools as more families opt out.

“I’m hearing that there’s more coming up for us this year, and families are using the choice not to test the students,” she said. “That’s a challenge for you as a board member because how are we going to tell the parents how the kids are doing?” Related Articles Distance learning deal with St. Paul teachers calls for ‘regular’ — not necessarily daily — live teaching

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In Minneapolis Public Schools last year, 306 juniors at South High School opted out of the math test, and 191 did so at Southwest.

Among St. Paul high schools, Como Park had the most opt-outs: 28.

Rodriguez said the teachers union likely will encourage more St. Paul parents to opt out this spring, without the district’s help, but she had no specific plan. Schools can start administering the MCAs in math, reading and science as early as Monday.

ST. PAUL TESTS RELATIVELY FEW

Walker, the school district’s CEO, said she thinks students spend an appropriate amount of time testing.

After surveying 66 U.S. school districts last year, the Council of Great City Schools held up St. Paul as an example of a low-test school district. An English language learning third-grader, for example, spends just less than 11 hours in testing — about 1 percent of total classtime for the year.

The same student in Detroit, the survey found, would spend 39 hours in testing.

The council found the average big city school district spends 2.3 percent of classroom time on testing. Gov. Mark Dayton and President Barack Obama have proposed a limit of 2 percent.

Walker said that beyond the assessments the district is required to administer, officials look annually to eliminate unnecessary tests.

“We want information from these assessments that allow us to tailor our instruction and improve our practices and ultimately improve student achievement,” she said. “We think we have the right amount and kinds of assessments.”

2015 MCA MATH TEST PARTICIPATION

St. Paul Public Schools

17,687 complete

141 incomplete

108 refusals

20 invalid

Minneapolis Public Schools

16,400 complete

773 refusals

199 absences

71 incomplete

43 invalid

All public schools