Hawaii educators are embracing with varying degrees of enthusiasm the new standardized tests that debuted in schools this month.

Some believe the more rigorous assessments will better prepare students for college and improve teaching. Others argue the high-stakes testing sets up students for failure and has narrowed what’s being taught in the classroom to math and language arts, the tested subjects.

Some 93,000 public school students are expected to take the Smarter Balanced Assessment between now and June. The federal government requires states to test students annually in grades 3 to 8, and once in high school. States face possible sanctions, including loss of control over federal funding, if the mandated tests are not given to most students.

Hawaii is one of about 30 states that have agreed by this school year to administer new tests aligned to the Common Core standards — nationally crafted academic standards that lay out what students should know and be able to do in reading and math from kindergarten to grade 12.

At Lanakila Elementary in Li­liha, students, teachers and even parents have taken multiple practice Smarter Balanced tests to prepare for the upcoming assessment.

"You could say we’re dedicating tons of time to test prep … but it’s not about teaching to the test. It’s about teaching to the Common Core. The results will give us a feel for whether or not our students are ready to move to the next level," said Lana­kila Principal Katherine Bala­tico. "In the long run our kids are going to college, and our teachers can be confident that they’ve done everything in their power to ensure students put their best foot forward."

Campbell High School teacher Corey Rosenlee — who has been outspoken about what he calls a pervasive culture of toxic testing — says standardized tests do more harm than good when scores are used to evaluate teachers and punish low-performing schools.

He said because schools can’t control the socioeconomic status of a student — a strong predictor of student achievement — they exercise the control they do have over the amount of time and resources spent preparing for the test.

Beyond preparation efforts, the tests themselves are time-consuming: Based on field testing, it takes students 41⁄2 hours for the language arts portion of the test and three to four hours for the math.

"As a parent I’ve seen the devastating impact of standardized testing in the classroom. Students are taking practice tests and pre-tests leading up to the actual test, and everything is geared toward passing this one test," Rosenlee said. "As a social studies teacher, the thing that bothers me, too, is that in order to get the kids ready for the math and English tests, so many of the other subjects are being ignored — sciences and social studies, and forget about art and music."

Other parents say their children are stressed out.

"I’ve noticed that the pressure to do well on these tests is trickling down to the kids, and it’s intense. It’s affecting their joy to go to school," said Gabi Masuda, president of the parent-teacher association at King Kame­ha­meha III Elementary on Maui, who has two children in school. "My son feels an immense amount of pressure to do well versus ‘Hey, let’s do our best.’"

As other states have begun testing, growing consternation has fueled a national opt-out movement as parents have their children boycott testing.

"We’re seeing huge numbers of opt-outs in Colo­rado and New Jersey," said Bob Schaeffer, education director for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing.

Without opt-out provisions built into law like in Cali­for­nia and Pennsylvania, Schaeffer said, federal law "mandates a large spate of tests — 17 standardized tests between third grade and graduation."

Hawaii law doesn’t include specific opt-out language, and legislation that would require the Board of Education to inform parents about opting out of statewide standardized testing has stalled.

Schools Superintendent Kathryn Mata­yo­shi says the federal government requires a 95 percent test participation rate at schools, "otherwise there are consequences for the school."

"It’s sort of a double whammy because if you opt out, you don’t get taken out of the equation. You’re still a part of the equation, but your score is a zero, so you actually bring down the school’s proficiency because the student is marked a zero for the test," she said in an interview.

Under Hawaii’s federal accountability waiver from the outdated No Child Left Behind law, student achievement — as measured on standardized tests — has to be used to gauge teacher effectiveness and to hold schools responsible for learning gains.

Mililani High School teacher Amy Perruso says teachers are being instructed by principals and other administrators not to inform parents of what she calls an implicit right to opt children out. Perruso has opted her fourth-grade daughter out of testing this year and in previous years.

"It’s hard to find a teacher who is in support of the new norm of standardized testing. I don’t know anybody. But we can’t communicate our views to the parents of our students," she said. "Administrators are not only suppressing information, they’re offering incorrect information. It’s inaccurate to say that parents don’t have a legal right to opt out their children. Parents have the right — implicitly, not explicitly, stated in (the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act) and relevant Supreme Court rulings."

Perruso said she chooses to opt her daughter out because the tests don’t accurately portray "who she is as a learner and her progress as a learner."

Segun Eubanks, director of teacher quality for the National Education Association, the largest teachers union, said teachers have a general mistrust of standardized testing.

"I think what we’ve heard from our teachers is a big concern over simply whether or not any state assessment tells much of the story about what kids need to know, should know and are learning in schools," he said. "We have a lot more hope that (Smarter Balanced) and some of these other new assessments are going to cover a better depth and breadth of what students know."

Education officials say the new tests are designed to emphasize critical-thinking and problem-solving skills over rote memorization. But they warn scores will go down this year.

Superintendent Mata­yo­shi said this year’s results should be viewed as "a new starting point." In a letter to parents, she said the online tests — which will cost an estimated $40 per student to administer and score — include interactive questions that allow students to demonstrate what they have learned in a variety of ways.

"We expect the change to the new test and standards will result in a drop in scores as compared to previous years," she wrote. "Lower test scores do not mean students are performing any worse, because these are newer, higher expectations for student learning."

Last year, to help with the transition, students took a hybrid or so-called bridge assessment — a subset of math and reading questions from the former Hawaii State Assessment that most aligned with the more demanding Common Core.

Overall scores dropped slightly. Statewide, 59 percent of isle students tested proficient in math for the 2013-14 school year, down from 60 percent the year before. Meanwhile 70 percent of students were proficient in language arts, down from 72 percent a year prior.

In New York state, where schools started using Common Core tests two years ago, the number of students who scored proficient in math plummeted by more than 30 percentage points in 2013, while passing English scores dropped by more than 20 percentage points.

A similar drop in scores was seen in Kentucky. Both states have showed modest improvements in subsequent years.

Hawaii’s results won’t be available until August, after the current school year and teacher evaluation cycle ends.

"Once we get them, we’ll have a chance to look at that data and start doing some further discussion around how does it compare, how does it look, does it seem like there’s some adjustments that need to be made," Mata­yo­shi said.

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On the Net:

» To take an online practice test, go to smarterbalanced.org/practice-test.