Subclassing TestCase in Python: Overwriting Field in Parent TestCase

I'm writing integration tests for an Alexa app.

Our application uses a controller-request-response pattern. The controller receives a request with a specified intent and session variables, routes the request to functions that do some computation with the session variables, and returns a response object with the results of that computation.

We get the right behavior from UnhandledIntentTestCase as far as test_for_smoke is concerned. However, test_returning_reprompt_text never fires, because returns_reprompt_text is never overwritten.

Can someone explain how I can overwrite it in the parent class and/or how the correct intent name is passed to the request object in setUpClass?

intent_base_case.py

import unittest

import mycity.intents.intent_constants as intent_constants
import mycity.mycity_controller as mcc
import mycity.mycity_request_data_model as req
import mycity.test.test_constants as test_constants




###############################################################################                                                                
# TestCase parent class for all intent TestCases, which are integration tests #                                                                
# to see if any changes in codebase have broken response-request model.       #                                                                
#                                                                             #                                                                
# NOTE: Assumes that address has already been set.                            #                                                                
###############################################################################                                                                

class IntentBaseCase(unittest.TestCase):

    __test__ = False

    intent_to_test = None
    returns_reprompt_text = False

    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
        cls.controller = mcc.MyCityController()
        cls.request = req.MyCityRequestDataModel()
        key = intent_constants.CURRENT_ADDRESS_KEY
        cls.request._session_attributes[key] = "46 Everdean St"
        cls.request.intent_name = cls.intent_to_test
        cls.response = cls.controller.on_intent(cls.request)

    @classmethod
    def tearDownClass(cls):
        cls.controller = None
        cls.request = None

    def test_for_smoke(self):
        self.assertNotIn("Uh oh", self.response.output_speech)
        self.assertNotIn("Error", self.response.output_speech)

    def test_correct_intent_card_title(self):
        self.assertEqual(self.intent_to_test, self.response.card_title)


    @unittest.skipIf(not returns_reprompt_text,
                     "{} shouldn't return a reprompt text".format(intent_to_test))
    def test_returning_reprompt_text(self):
        self.assertIsNotNone(self.response.reprompt_text)


    @unittest.skipIf(returns_reprompt_text,
                   "{} should return a reprompt text".format(intent_to_test))
    def test_returning_no_reprompt_text(self):
        self.assertIsNone(self.response.reprompt_text)

test_unhandled_intent.py

import mycity.test.intent_base_case as base_case


########################################                                                                                                       
# TestCase class for unhandled intents #                                                                                                       
########################################                                                                                                       


class UnhandledIntentTestCase(base_case.IntentBaseCase):

    __test__ = True

    intent_to_test = "UnhandledIntent"
    returns_reprompt_text = True

output

======================================================================
FAIL: test_correct_intent_card_title (mycity.test.test_unhandled_intent.UnhandledIntentTestCase)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/wdrew/projects/alexa_311/my_city/mycity/mycity/test/intent_base_case.py", line 44, in test_correct_intent_card_title
    self.assertEqual(self.intent_to_test, self.response.card_title)
AssertionError: 'UnhandledIntent' != 'Unhandled intent'
- UnhandledIntent
?          ^
+ Unhandled intent
?          ^^


======================================================================
FAIL: test_returning_no_reprompt_text (mycity.test.test_unhandled_intent.UnhandledIntentTestCase)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/wdrew/projects/alexa_311/my_city/mycity/mycity/test/intent_base_case.py", line 56, in test_returning_no_reprompt_text
    self.assertIsNone(self.response.reprompt_text)
AssertionError: 'So, what can I help you with today?' is not None

----------------------------------------------------------------------