This is the second straight year that states are asking for waivers. In 2020, Betsy DeVos, then the education secretary in the Trump administration, told all states they did not have to administer the tests after schools were abruptly closed when the pandemic hit. She said last year, however, that if she remained education secretary, she wouldn’t give the waivers again.
This week, the U.S. Education Department sent a letter to chief state school officers this week saying the Feb. 1 deadline for seeking a waiver was being extended though it didn’t set a new deadline. It promised states that it would soon provide details on submitting waiver requests as well as state assessment plans to comply with the 2015 federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
It did not, however, promise to approve the waivers, and it is still unclear where Miguel Cardona, the state superintendent of education in Connecticut who Biden chose as his nominee to be education secretary, stands on the issue. Shortly before he was tapped by Biden to run the Education Department, he said he wanted students to take the exams this spring but didn’t want the results used as an assessment measure for individual teachers, schools and districts.
ESSA requires public schools to give most students standardized tests each year in math and English language arts and to use the results in accountability formulas. Districts evaluate teachers and states evaluate schools and districts — at least in part — on test scores. What’s more, districts and states have added other high-stakes standardized tests on students for purposes including graduation, grade promotion and teacher bonuses. CONTINUE READING: More states seek federal waivers from standardized tests as Biden extends deadline for requests - The Washington Post