States Move Forward with Focus on Data to Guide Pandemic Recovery, While Some Seek Waivers
January 29, 2021
New York and Michigan added their names to the list of states again requesting a waiver of annual assessments required by ESSA, citing continued disruption imposed by the pandemic. While the states join a few others in asking for the tests to be called off, officials in other states are voicing their hope to move forward with tests that they say can deliver data to help them through the worst of their pandemic-related challenges. In Mississippi and Texas, for example, state officials moved to ease accountability measures typically dependent on test scores, but stated that administering the tests would be useful “to determine how much impact the pandemic has had on learning in schools.”