Almost half of Americans don't think kids should be able to opt out of standardized tests

Fifty-one percent of Americans believe children take too many standardized tests — but that doesn't mean they believe that kids should be able to opt out of them.

A new Huffington Post/YouGov poll found that 43 percent of Americans believe K-12 students should not have the ability to opt out of standardized tests. Only a few states have rules that explicitly allow students to opt out of exams, Huffington Post notes — and even then, students could face suspension for passing that information along to others.

The poll's language asked respondents if children should be able to opt out of testing "as a form of protest," which may have skewed the results for parents who have other reasons for allowing their children to opt out of standardized tests. Forty-nine percent of respondents agreed that the current U.S. system of standardized testing "has done more harm than good" in the past 10 years.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up