Cardona’s Flexibility on Standardized Testing Creates Confusion and Rancor | janresseger

Cardona’s Flexibility on Standardized Testing Creates Confusion and Rancor | janresseger

Cardona’s Flexibility on Standardized Testing Creates Confusion and Rancor

After a chaotic schoolyear including remote learning and sometimes complicated hybrid schedules of in-person and remote learning, students are returning to full-time school to face the annual standardized tests. These are the tests that Congress requires under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the tests first required by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). They are the foundation of a two-decade-old scheme to hold schools accountable. Betsy DeVos cancelled required standardized testing last spring after schools shut down as the pandemic struck the Unites States.

The U.S. Department of Education announced in late February, before Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was even confirmed, that it is requiring standardized testing this spring. There is a whole lot of confusion between the federal government and the states right now because the federal guidance about testing this year features “flexibility.”

Here is some of the letter, dated February 22, 2021, from acting assistant secretary of education, Ian Rosenblum, a letter which informed states they must test students this year: “We remain committed to supporting all states in assessing the learning of all students. The Department is, therefore, offering the following flexibility with respect to your assessment, accountability, and reporting systems for the 2020-2021 school year… We are inviting states to request a waiver for the 2020-2021 school year of the accountability and school identification requirements… A state receiving this waiver would not be required to implement and report the results of its accountability system, including calculating progress toward long-term goals and measurements of interim progress or indicators, or to annually meaningfully CONTINUE READING: Cardona’s Flexibility on Standardized Testing Creates Confusion and Rancor | janresseger

75% Of Delaware Legislators Write Letter To Secretary Bunting Urging Delaware To Request Waiver From US DOE For Smarter Balanced Assessment | Exceptional Delaware

75% Of Delaware Legislators Write Letter To Secretary Bunting Urging Delaware To Request Waiver From US DOE For Smarter Balanced Assessment | Exceptional Delaware

75% Of Delaware Legislators Write Letter To Secretary Bunting Urging Delaware To Request Waiver From US DOE For Smarter Balanced Assessment

On February 5th, led by Delaware State Rep. Kim Williams and State Rep. William Bush, 46 out of the 62 Delaware state legislators wrote Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Susan Bunting requesting Delaware seeks a waiver from the United States Department of Education in implementing the state assessment in Delaware for the 2020-2021 school year. The test was waived last year due to the Covid pandemic. I highly salute all of these legislators on BOTH sides of the aisle for doing this!!! When it comes to education, our legislators need to put away partisan politics and do what is right for kids and this is an awesome way to do it. Of course, Bunting needs to acquiesce to their request and that has yet to be determined. And then the United States Department of Education needs to grant those waivers. Still a lot to happen here with a small window of opportunity for the Smarter Balanced Assessment to go away CONTINUE READING: 75% Of Delaware Legislators Write Letter To Secretary Bunting Urging Delaware To Request Waiver From US DOE For Smarter Balanced Assessment | Exceptional Delaware

Will Secretary of Education Cardona Grant Standardized Test Waivers to States? | Ed In The Apple

Will Secretary of Education Cardona Grant Standardized Test Waivers to States? | Ed In The Apple

Will Secretary of Education Cardona Grant Standardized Test Waivers to States?

Secretary of Education Designee Cardona testified at his Senate Education Committee confirmation hearing (Watch here); committee members have five minutes to ask and receive answers: a preview of Cardona policies? Maybe. One of the first questions was whether he would grant waivers allowing states not to administer standardized grades 3-8 tests. Chalkbeat reports,

Miguel Cardona sent mixed messages… how he would approach federally required standardized testing this year,

“If the conditions under COVID-19 prevent a student from being in school in person, I don’t think we need to be bringing students in just to test them,” But he suggested he still believes testing could be useful this year.

“If we don’t assess where our students are and their level of performance, it’s going to be difficult for us to provide targeted support and resource allocation in the manner that can best support the closing of the gaps that have been exacerbated due to this pandemic,”

Senator Burr followed up by asking whether states should be able to make their own decisions.

Cardona responded: “I feel that states should not only have an opportunity to CONTINUE READING: Will Secretary of Education Cardona Grant Standardized Test Waivers to States? | Ed In The Apple

More states seek federal waivers from standardized tests as Biden extends deadline for requests - The Washington Post

More states seek federal waivers from standardized tests as Biden extends deadline for requests - The Washington Post

More states seek federal waivers from standardized tests as Biden’s Education Department extends deadline for requests

The Biden administration is giving states extra time to seek a waiver from annual standardized tests mandated by federal law as New York and Michigan announced they don’t want to subject students to the exams this year during the covid-19 pandemic.

“In light of the ongoing pandemic, we have determined that the Spring 2021 state assessments cannot be safely, equitably and fairly administered to students in schools across the state,” New York Board of Regents Chancellor Lester W. Young, Jr. said in a statement announcing the state’s intention to seek a waiver.

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