Coronavirus delays national math and reading tests until 2022

National reading and math tests long used to track what American students know in these subjects are being postponed from next year until 2022 due to questions of whether the tests would be feasible or produce valid results during the coronavirus pandemic, the National Center for Education Statistics said on Wednesday.

The biennial national assessment of educational progress assessments used for the nation’s report was scheduled for early next year for hundreds of thousands of fourth and eighth graders nationwide. But widespread distance learning and health protocols would have added great complications and costs because the model uses shared equipment and sends outside monitors to perform the tests in schools.

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Advancing testing into 2021 risks spending tens of millions of dollars and not getting the data needed to produce a reliable and comparable picture of student performance across the state and nation, NCES Commissioner James Woodworth said in a press release. By law, they would have to wait another two years for the next chance to test.

Testing in 2022 “would be more likely to provide valuable – and valid – data on student outcomes in the aftermath of COVID-19 to support effective policy, research and resource allocation,” Council leaders said national evaluation administration in a press release. separate statement supporting the movement.

The non-partisan Council of Public School Principals also supported the postponement of the NAEP.

Ohio Department of Education spokesperson Mandy Minick called it “completely understandable” given the significant disruption schools face.

“I think we’re all on the same page when trying to focus on health and safety,” she said.

However, the decision also delays data that could help show how the pandemic is affecting learning.

Woodworth suggested that the results of annual state tests – usually conducted using schools’ own equipment and staff, and therefore perhaps more achievable than national tests – could help bridge the gap and provide insight into state level impact. But the postponement of the NAEP could have ripple effects in the debate over whether these state tests even take place in the spring of 2021.

State testing, which is mandated by the federal government and is used more for accountability purposes, was canceled last spring under federal waivers as the pandemic exploded. The current administration under Republican President Donald Trump had indicated that states should not expect to get another round of waivers if they request them, but it’s a problem that is likely to come back after taking office. by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden.

“If the national assessment cannot be done in 21, states will legitimately say, ‘Well, why do we have to test in 21? Said Chester Finn, former chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board and chairman emeritus of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which advocates accountability for results.

If states skip testing again this spring, it could create a multi-year gap in the data that will help inform further decisions and identify concerns, Finn said.

“If you are not being held accountable for your results, or if there is no way to do it because there is no information on your results, then all kinds of bad things happen to you. education system and children of the education system, ”he said. . “We kind of go back to the days of pre-responsibility, when, you know, the only thing you knew about a child’s learning was the teachers’ grades, and the only thing you knew about the A school’s performance was what the principal said it was, and no one had data on the gaps between different groups of children. “

The postponement of national testing is understandable but makes having state testing in 2021 “a moral imperative,” the Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Work, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. , And the Senate’s top Democrat on Health Education, Work and Pensions Committee, Washington State Senator Patty Murray said in a joint statement.

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“For our country to recover and rebuild after the pandemic, we must first understand the extent of the learning loss that has affected students across the country,” they wrote. “This cannot happen without evaluation data.”

In letters to these lawmakers, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also expressed strong support for continuing state assessments next spring and said states “have ample time to plan for a government administration. successful tests tailored to their unique circumstances.

His letters also indicated that because the NAEP is mandated by the federal government, Congress would have to approve the postponement of national testing for one year.