Coronavirus Poses New Challenges for Already Imperiled Statewide Standardized Assessments
April 21, 2020
A piece by Education Next takes a deeper dive into the recent FutureEd study examining opposition to statewide standardized testing. This opposition has made for strange bedfellows as “teachers’ unions and their progressive allies” opposed to test-based consequences for schools and teachers find themselves on the same side as “conservatives opposed to what they consider an inappropriate federal role in testing.” ESSA currently “requires that every state test every student in seven grades annually;” however, “annual state tests and the safeguards they provide are clearly at risk” given the opposition they face and the new educational landscape the coronavirus pandemic has created.