Feds Draw Fine Line on Testing This Spring
April 23, 2021
Education Week’s Andrew Ujifusa says “a disconnect has emerged between the federal government requiring states to offer their tests, and districts’ power to exempt students from taking them,” citing the nuanced path federal education officials have taken in responding to individual state requests for scaling back testing this spring. In California, Ujifusa reports, some districts are poised to use local testing data in place of data from statewide, summative tests – a move the Education Department has, in other state plans, rejected. And in Oregon and Washington, some districts continue to push back on the expectation to administer tests, granting families and students wide discretion to opt-out of taking spring exams.