Students, teachers and parents have had tremendous difficulties over the past year and deserve it … [+]
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Testing during the pandemic has proven to be a focal point in education as parents, educators, policymakers, and others find the best way to help America’s children thrive.
It was noteworthy, for example, that Marc Morial, President and Executive Director of the National Urban League, and Janet Murguia, President and Executive Director of UnidosUS, recently wrote a statement in the Washington Post praising the Biden administration’s decision to make calls to Issuing a blanket refuse waiving statewide ratings.
The two civil rights activists wrote that “nationwide ratings are the only objective, consistent and comparable measure of student progress” and therefore an important component in knowing “where the gaps are in educational opportunities and performance”. While they recognized the disruption of learning that students experienced this year, they said that because of the disorder, we need practical methods to measure the impact on students – especially low-income students, color students, students with disabilities and Students who are learning English.
Your poignant piece comes at a critical time. Several states such as Nebraska, Florida, and Texas have already begun testing, while the Department of Education is slowly going through a series of state waivers related to easing testing requirements. While the division has declined attempts from Georgia, Michigan, and South Carolina to waive statewide testing, it recently allowed the District of Columbia to do just that, removing any chance of “statewide” comparability in our nation’s capital, who greet the two civil rights activists.
Hopefully, in the days and weeks ahead, both the federal government and states will be keenly interested in testing students so we can better understand how students have fared during the pandemic – and how best to allocate resources to those that they need most. Historically, and today as our country’s schools are faced with the historic challenge of meeting student needs during and after a global pandemic, many civil rights, educational and corporate groups consider assessment to be instrumental in eliminating educational inequalities.
At the Collaborative for Student Success’ Assessment Headquarters, learn how states are managing federal government-mandated student assessments during the COVID recovery. In addition, Dale Chu, author of the website’s Testing 1-2-3 blog, developed the power rankings approach to assess student progress.
Students, teachers, and parents have faced tremendous difficulties over the past year and deserve incredible grace during our national recovery. To get out of this pandemic, it is important to understand the impact extended school closings have had on student progress.
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