USDED: No Student Assessment Opt-Outs Allowed
The U.S. Department of Education has spoken on student opt-outs for the 2016 statewide assessments.
Ann Whalen, the acting assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, wrote a letterto state school chiefs reminding them of “key assessment requirements” for the statewide assessments to be taken in Spring 2016. This school year the states are still under the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Whalen notes however, “similar requirements are included in the recently signed reauthorization of the ESEA, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).”
She gets very clear on a student’s ability to opt-out.
Section 1111(b)(3)1 of the ESEA requires each State educational agency (SEA) that receives funds under Title I, Part A of the ESEA to implement in each local educational agency (LEA) in the State a set of high-quality academic assessments that includes, at a minimum, assessments in mathematics and reading/language arts administered in each of grades 3 through 8 and not less than once during grades 10 through 12; and in science not less than once during grades 3 through 5, grades 6 through 9, and grades 10 through 12. Furthermore, ESEA sections 1111(b)(3)(C)(i) and (ix)(I) require State assessments to “be the same academic assessments used to measure the achievement of all children” and “provide for the participation in such assessments of all students” (emphasis added). These requirements do not allow students to be excluded from statewide assessments. Rather, they set out the legal rule that all students in the tested grades must be assessed. (Emphasis added)
So perhaps Congress should have kept opt-out language in ESSA after all. A lot will be left up to interpretation by the U.S. Department of Education.
John King, who will replace Arne Duncan as U.S. Secretary of Education, told Politico that he will set up “guardrails” for the new flexibility states receive under ESSA.
Politico noted in today’s Morning Education that state school chiefs are starting to note a lack of USDED: No Student Assessment Opt-Outs Allowed | Truth in American Education:
