The U.S. Department of Education (ED) informed state education leaders Monday, February 22, 2021, that states will not be allowed to cancel federally mandated standardized exams this school year despite the pandemic and will not acknowledge blanket waivers of assessments.
However, ED emphasized the importance of flexibility in administering assessments and stated that this year’s assessment data should be used as a source of information for parents and educators to target resources and support, rather than for accountability purposes.
ED’s guidance makes clear that states should consider the ways they can do things differently this year. Flexibility available to states includes:
· Extending the testing window and moving assessments to the summer or fall,
· Giving the assessment remotely, where feasible,
· Shortening the state assessment, to make testing more feasible to implement and prioritize in-person learning time.
In addition to encouraging flexibility around assessments, ED is allowing states to request a waiver for the Every Student Succeeds Act’s accountability and school identification requirements. This flexibility will explicitly include waiving the accountability provisions relating to having a 95 percent test participation rate.
