Led by the Data Quality Campaign, this letter urges the Department of Education not to issue states waivers from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirement for administering statewide English language arts and math assessments for the 2020-2021 school year. Without student performance data from statewide assessments, state leaders will not be able to provide transparency to parents and communities about how schools are serving students; strategically and equitably allocate resources based on data about students in different schools; calculate measures of student academic growth and target resources accordingly; and find and learn from schools that best served all students during the pandemic. However, the signers acknowledge that administering assessments will be hard next year and thus call for the department to support states and districts with technical assistance, funding flexibility, guidance, and more as they address these challenges.
Read the full letter here.