UPDATE TO NEWS RELEASE: 50,000 signatures submitted to SBE-parents, educators urge waiving standardized testing
NEWS RELEASE
California Teachers Association February 22, 2021
Contact: Claudia Briggs cbriggs@cta.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Educators Call on State Board of Education to Seek Waiver from U.S. Department of Education Suspending Standardized Testing for Current School Year
More than 40,000 concerned parents and educators sign petition echoing concerns over undue pressure on students, technology inequities, and data reliability; call for focus on other supports in response to pandemic
BURLINGAME — The California Teachers Association (CTA) has submitted a letter to the State Board of Education (SBE) urging the California Department of Education (CDE) to submit a waiver requesting the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) to suspend standardized testing for the 2020-21 school year. In the February 22, 2021, letter to the SBE, CTA cites problems with both feasibility of administration, useability and reliability of resulting data, and the cruelty of putting students, families, and educators through high stakes assessments in the middle of a pandemic. If submitted and approved, the waiver would suspend summative assessments required under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), normally conducted in the spring.
Most California students are still engaged in distance learning, and many students still lack reliable internet bandwidth and access or inconsistent learning and testing environments. Educators have also expressed concerns about the validity and comparability of a statewide test administered under widely varying and largely uncontrolled circumstances. CTA is advocating for the suspension of high stakes tests that will take away precious instructional time and put unnecessary additional stress on students and their families.
CTA has also sent a letter to Acting U.S. Secretary of Education, Phil Rosenfelt, urging the USDOE to issue assessment waivers to states as soon as possible, reiterating educator concerns about the harm that standardized testing in the middle of a pandemic would cause.
“Given widespread inequities in student access to technology and the internet, as well as the concerns both educators and parents have about the value of any data gathered from traditional annual testing in the midst of a global pandemic, we firmly believe testing would be detrimental to students, and of little use to teachers and school districts,” said CTA President E. Toby Boyd. “These factors lead us to urge policy makers to instead focus on providing support to students in distance learning and their safe return to physical classrooms instead of on assessments of little value.”
A petition by the California Teachers Association calling for the suspension of state standardized testing has so far gathered 40,000 signatures from parents and educators who are deeply concerned about the continuation of normal testing during this most challenging school year. That petition is being shared with the SBE and the USDOE.
More background on these letters, standardized testing, and CTA’s position on suspending testing this year can be found here.
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The 310,000-member CTA is affiliated with the 3-million-member National Education Association.
Claudia Briggs, Communications Assistant Manager, California Teachers Association (EST 1863)
916.325.1550 (office) | 916.296.4087 (cell) | cbriggs@cta.org
The California Teachers Association exists to protect and promote the well-being of its members; to improve the conditions of teaching and learning; to advance the cause of free, universal, and quality public education; to ensure that the human dignity and civil rights of all children and youth are protected; and to secure a more just, equitable, and democratic society.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good. Those tests are dumb and just $$$$$$ makers for the few.
Teachers know more about the students they interact with than any stupid high-stakes test.
So glad to know this . . . it feels like the goalposts are a little bit closer. CBK
Unions, parents, teachers and social justice advocates need to kick up a fuss. They need to stand firm that this decision is not in the best interest of young people. This decision has more to do with data collection and corporate welfare than education. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Call the Biden administration out for its hypocrisy and broken promises.
Good afternoon Diane and everyone,
Sooooo…. here’s something you may not have thought about. Many teachers I know have upper level students who are learning remotely supposedly for fear of catching covid. Fine, right? Yet they are also working in grocery stores, restaurants and other places and sometimes during school hours. So, when the time comes to go back to school in person, will they??? I mean some of these kids have been hopping from in person to remote. So, why come back to school when you can work all day and have the teacher send you your school work on the computer? Are we looking at some changes in our education system in regards to at least high school juniors and seniors doing school remotely? I can see the parents encouraging this as well. After all, it would be a good jump on earning money for college. Just some thoughts.
I’m not saying this is a good thing but if parents are taking their kids out of school during a pandemic so they can work, why would they send them back to school??? This may be what they’re thinking.
I’m guessing it will depend a little bit on whether parents have good full time employment . I know there are a lot of kids who are working to support their families. Very little if any of their earnings are going towards anything but keeping a roof over their heads and food in their bellies.
The defeat of Neera Tanden’s confirmation which may occur, should send a warning to Biden about CAP’s education policy. Various sites in late 2020 described CAP as endorsing the Trump/DeVos policy of continuing standardized testing during the pandemic, denying requests for waivers and, asking for additional assessments.
Except that Tanden was rejected by Republicans and right-wing Democrats because she said mean things about Republicans. Not even Bernie and the Squad have made a peep about Tanden’s ugly history on things like invading Libya and expecting Libya to pay for it or outing sexual assault victims or punching reporters, let alone any of the odious policies CAP has supported. Neither party opposes neoliberal policies like CAP’s education policy.
But have they defended her?
Wow, Diane, you are on a testing roll!
Bless you.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a Democrat, Republican, progressive, conservative, demagogue or ficus tree in office. One thing you can go to the bank on is that regardless of the POTUS, the US Department of Education will be hard at work sabotaging public education, students, and teachers. Defund and disband this lobbyist controlled fraud of an institution. Education is a states’ right anyway.
Another issue that’s almost as important as a couple days of standardized tests.
Did the Democrat governors, the teachers, or their parents fail those three million children?
I think part of the problem is that it requires a lot of maturity, organization and focus to try to learn online. Students who are skilled at directing themselves will do ok online. But most students don’t have these skills or are just not interested in taking the time to learn online. It’s difficult to teach online just because of the medium. It takes MORE work than actually being in class. I also find it odd that parents have problems overseeing their kids school work. When I was failing geometry in 10th grade, my parents sat down with me every night sometimes for 2 hours to help me. Of course, not all parents can do this but they can at least make sure kids are doing their work. They can look at their grades whenever they want and know what the kids aren’t doing. There are so many ways to learn out there now that there’s really no excuse for not learning and being interested in things.
To keep this article in perspective, it should be noted that there is group of 5+ million students in the K-12 public school pipeline who will not graduate high school. The 3 million who have “disappeared” from the opportunities provided during the pandemic probably reflect a portion of the 12+% of future drop outs.