TEAM SELLOUTS

INFO 2950 Project

This research study aims to target reasons why students choose to opt out of state standardized testing exams and see if there are common trends to the types of students who opt out. The main question posed here is, depending on economic status, English Language Learner status, and Disability status, are you more or less likely to opt-out of ELA and Math standardized tests for Grades 3-8, and does opting out of one exam increase the likelihood of opting out of both? To address this question, we looked at a dataset specifically for New York State Grades 3-8 for ELA and Math Exam refusals. Overall, a larger percentage chooses to opt into state testing, but this study is focusing on the minority of students who opt out. We used hypothesis testing to look at the different variables and their impacts on refusals for Math exams, and to find a relationship between ELA and Math refusal rates. We cannot conclude that any of the variables (English language learner, students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged) have a significant effect on the total number of refusals for the Math exam individually. However, there is still a connection between identifying with these groups and opting out. There is also a strong linear relationship between the percentage of students opting out of ELA exams as there is for Math exams. It proves to be important to look at these different factors and more when looking at why students choose to opt out of standardized testing.