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LA Unified’s plan to scrap standardized tests at ten schools has parents questioning accountability — and teachers welcoming less testing stress.

Next year, students from ten community schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District will not take the district’s standardized tests.

Following a 4-3 decision by the district school board on Sep.10, these schools will be exempt from standardized tests, except for exams required by state and federal laws in the 2025-26 academic year. 

The evaluation in these schools would be replaced by new alternative assessments, which are yet to be determined. The schools that are participating are also yet to be determined.  

The new opt-out policy is part of the Supporting Meaningful Teaching and Learning in the LAUSD Community Schools Initiative, a program aimed at improving education in LAUSD Community Schools.

Kyla Lilyin and Aron Dod, two West Adams Preparatory High School students, say they would be happy if their school were chosen for the program next semester.  

“[Sometimes] we will be tested weekly,” said Dod.

Lilyin added, “Sometimes we do need tests to make sure what we are learning, but sometimes we don’t because it’s a lot of work.”

Ubaldo Rivera, a father of two children at Animo Jackie Robinson Charter High School,  was skeptical. “If this [is] already [what] they have done for many years, why are they going to change it?” he asked. “Everything was good.”

Karla Perez, a mom of a student at West Adams Preparatory High School, opposed the idea of waiving standardized tests. “Without a test, we don’t know what levels our children are at,” she said. “Sometimes the kids don’t even know how to read.”

When asked whether her daughter felt stressed about tests, Perez smiled. “If she studies, she will know the answers, she will learn the lesson, and she will pass the test,” she said.  

While parents interviewed by LA School Reporter weren’t happy with LAUSD’s proposal, teachers had a different perspective. 

Ray Clark, a social studies teacher at West Adams Preparatory High School, said there have been way too many tests for students. “Even our principal is pushing us to do tests in every class,” said Clark. 

Although Clark does believe that students should be tested, the tests need to, “make sense,” he said.  

What Clark referred to was a standardized tests program called i-Ready, a computerized assessment used in LAUSD schools, primarily for English and math. 

Clark complained the i-Ready program is not aligned to the SAT college entrance exam taken by many high school students. 

“Most of the standardized tests are not compatible with whole child learning,” he said. 

An English teacher at University Prep Value High School in the Pico-Union neighborhood described her mixed feelings about standardized tests. 

“I think I see the value, but I hate the loss of class time,” said the teacher, who asked only her first name, Sarah, because she had not been given permission to speak to the media by school officials. 

There are about six standardized tests in the first semester for 11th graders at the school, according to Sarah. 

“I just think it’s a lot of testing,” she said. “And that’s not unique to our school at all.”

Sarah said exams, such as the PSAT, are harder to rationalize, since they are only useful for a minority of high-achieving students.

“I think there is purpose in standardized tests, as long as there’s a clear connection to a purpose beyond just the test itself,” she said.

Nonetheless, Sarah said there are too many standardized tests for her classes. 

“A lot of the cool things that we wanted to do we couldn’t,” she said, “because we were just testing.” 

This article is part of a collaboration between The 74 and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Chieh-Yu Lee is an M.S. Journalism student at USC Annenberg. She received a B.A. in English with a minor in sociology from the University of National Taiwan Normal University in 2024.