Steve Hinnefeld reports that Indiana’s education leadership is showing real leadership by seeking to cancel the state tests. The time to do so is now, because children and families are under stress, and schools will be closed for an undetermined number of weeks. The last thing children should have to worry about is being tested the minute they return, if school re-opens this spring.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Jennifer McCormick and the Indiana Department of Education are calling for standardized tests to be canceled in response to the COVID-19 outbreak that is closing schools across the state. It’s not an easy call, but it’s the right one.
The department asked Friday for schools to be excused from state and federal requirements for standardized assessments for the 2019-20 school year. The requests go to Gov. Eric Holcomb and to the U.S. Department of Education.
The department also said it would postpone the third-grade reading exam IREAD-3, scheduled to start next week, and suspend 10th-grade ISTEP testing. ILEARN exams for grades 3-8 will be delayed if not canceled.
Under normal circumstances, I’d argue the assessments provide useful information for schools, parents and policymakers. But these aren’t normal times. Schools are closing for at least two or three weeks to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus. The disruption may be more serious than we realize.
“With the pressure our schools are already facing navigating the COVID-19 outbreak, the last thing our schools need is the undue burden of preparing and administering statewide assessments,” department spokesman Adam Baker said.
Actually, the tests are useless even in the best of times, because they have no diagnostic value. They are administered in the spring, and the results come back months later, with no guidance about the needs of individual students. This is akin to going to the doctor and being told that he will send you your test results in a few months, and the results will rank you compared to other patients but will not prescribe a course of treatment.
The state tests should be canceled in every state.
Children and families are under enough stress without having the tests hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles.
No one knows when school will re-open. Day by day, new closures are announced. It is only a matter of time until schooling is shut down, along with all other social functions in this country. We live in frightening times. Let’s face them with common sense and reason. And above all, protect the children from unnecessary stress and harm.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You forgot one word in the title. “Now is the time to cancel state testing FOREVER!”
Anytime is right for that call.
Amen to that, Duane!
“It’s not an easy call, but it’s the right one.” Why is it not an easy call? This is like calling a strike when the ball is right down Peachtree St. and the batter is taking all the way. Any umpire who would miss that call is on the take. Maybe that is why it is not an easy call.
key understanding: “on the take…”
Testing is a virus
Testing is a virus
Infecting kids and schools
Never will inspire us
The testing is for fools
The Common Core onus virus
another gem, SomeDAM!
Right before my district shut down for the next two weeks, we were directed to stop having students share school supplies like markers, glue, pens, etc. In California, the tests are online. There is no way to properly keep disinfected the keyboards and screens students have to share to take the tests. Yet another layer of testing stupidity exposed. And the cost of the tests also contributed to the current shortage of school nurses and custodial cleaning and disinfecting. We’ve been buying tech instead of taking care of the children. The tests are more dangerous and destructive than we previously understood. (It is also important to keep informing people about the disastrous results of online schools.)
There is no way to properly keep disinfected the keyboards and screens students have to share to take the test”
I believe you just identified the Achilles heel of online testing and online learning in general.
What an irony if virtual learning were killed by real germs.
And of course, computer viruses are also insidious
Oops, school hi-tech devices are virus-spreaders. And you know there’ll be no backtracking to pencil&paper cuz then how would pro-ed-reform-accountability-sys legislators collect from ed-tech campaign coffer-stuffers.
Silver lining!!
Click to access COVID-19-OESE-FINAL-3.12.20.pdf
The first line is a link to the March 12, 2020 requirements from USDE regarding testing and accountability. This memo indicates that states must apply for waivers. The USDE website also has links to other websites dealing with issues related to schools, such as the Department of Agriculture and school lunches. I recommend checking with your state’s department of education on whether they have sought these waivers and if you are able contribute to/organize a campaign to eliminate these tests.That requires missives to every legislator who signed on to ESSA and who still thinks tests are just fine.
Yes, things are changing on a weekly basis.
I belong to a support group at a large VA medical campus about 18 miles from my home.
On Wednesday, March 4th, that VA campus was the same as usual. Nothing had noticeably changed.
On Wednesday, March 11th, it wasn’t the same as usual. No test kits, thanks to his Royal Highness, the King of bullies/trolls, and the Emperor of Lies Donald Trump.
But, now this one VA medical center (the VA has hundreds of sites in the U.S. and its territories) had a large medical triage tent set up in a grassy area – the kind combat vets see in combat zones in-field military hospitals to deal with serious combat wounds.
Then there were the covered booths with masked and eye covered medical personal in front of all of the entrances to the buildings. When I reached the building I was going to, I could not enter without answering several questions. I was told that if I had answered yes to the questions about symptoms related to COVID-19, I would have been sent to that large field medical hospital tent.
After I answered all of their questions and was marked off on a list, I was given a yellow sticker and told to wear it at all times while on that VA medical campus. When I reached my support group, I was the only one with a yellow sticker. Some of the stickers were blue, green and one was red. None of us had any idea what those colors meant.
Hey, Naomi Klein shock-doctrine followers: this might be our moment! We’ve got chaos, let’s disrupt the accountability system stds/aligned-hi-stakes-tests status quo! Time for a return to locally-run districts accountable to democratically-elected boards of ed. We don’t need no stinkin fed/state-imposed accountability which is “cheap” only when implemented by sw delivered by hw that cannot be used w/o spreading deadly virus.
This is an opportunity– a large chink in the armor of $clouty ed-industry campaign coffer-stuffers. It’s likely to be open for a while: covid-19 may who knows die down w/warm weather but sure to come roaring back in Oct – & if you give Johns Hopkins epidemiology blogs a gander, there’s more coming down the pike. Just as commonsense states have returned to paper voting ballots due to viral sw, commonsense locals will be demanding a return to ppr&pencil exams – at which point ed-vulture-vendors will back for lack of sufficient profit margin.
Thank you, Bethree.
Bingo!
Nationwide beta testing to replace teachers and brick and mortar public schools with online learning advisors.
No need to core test when distance learning compterstroke cradle to grave model provides an efficiently age targeted individualized delivery system.
They have no shame.
So at best we are going to lose two or three weeks of school where actual learning may have been occurring. What sense does it make to try to organize and administer state testing if and when the kids return to school? Even if the virus seems to be waning, extra precautions would still need to be taken. Now is not the time to have to jump through any regulatory hoops to opt out of testing for this year. If I still had school age kids, they would not be participating.
Yes I think that move would get a lot of support.
http://www.homeschoolguru.org