The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State asks to skip tests until 2021-22
Virus, budget cuts lead to request to suspend Georgia Milestones.
Gov. Brian Kemp and state school Superintendent Richard Woods are asking the federal government to waive the public school testing requirement for another year, arguing that the tests are an unnecessary burden and expense during the coronavirus crisis.
“Given the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic and the resulting state budget reductions, it would be counterproductive to continue with high-stakes testing for the 2020-2021 school year,” the two said in a joint statement Thursday.
They will submit a waiver request to the U.S. Department of Education for the suspension of the Georgia Milestones and will also ask to waive the mandate for the school report card based on those tests, known as the College and Career Ready Performance Index.
Georgia appears to be the first state to make this announcement, they said.
The tests are the only state
wide measure of student, teacher and school performance, and are required by federal and state law. Public schools consume billions in tax dollars in Georgia alone, and the tests are used to measure student progress.
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos granted waivers for testing this spring after COVID-19 led to school closures across the country and all public schools in Georgia shuttered in March.
The resulting “remote” learning was unsatisfactory for many parents; many schools, particularly those in rural areas, were unprepared for online learning.
The effect on students is yet to be determined, and the state testing is the official measure. Without it next year, it will be difficult to tell whether students have fallen behind.
Staci Melton, whose son will be in sixth grade in DeKalb County, doesn’t like the standardized tests because she thinks they lead teachers to narrow their focus to what they expect will be on the exams. She’d rather rely on them than on a test.
“You have to hope that the teachers will let you know if things are not going well,” she said.
Educators note that the pandemic hit just as schools were finishing new material and shifting to review before the tests, and argue there was minimal impact last spring. But fall will be different, as students rise to the next grade and new curriculum.
Kelli Henderson, a mom in Waycross in southeast Georgia, said the tests are important in normal times, but given all the disruptions during the pandemic, she said it’s pretty obvious that her daughter, in third grade, isn’t getting a proper education.
“Our children are already falling behind before we enter this new school year, so if we do this testing, they’ll fail,” she said.
At this point, she’s more worried about survival and is wary of sending her daughter back to school, figuring there isn’t enough money to properly disinfect buses and buildings. She’d like to see any money saved on testing put toward that instead.
Schools are planning for reopening in the fall, but the costs to do so safely during a pandemic could be substantial. Meanwhile, the state Senate Appropriations Committee passed a new budget proposal Wednesday that reflects the economic impact of the pandemic with $1 billion in cuts to K-12 school funding.
Schools across the state are weighing teacher furloughs and other cutbacks while trying to account for the costs of schooling in a pandemic. It will mean more money spent on busing, technology, disinfectant, hand sanitizer and masks, among other things.
“Every dollar spent on highstakes testing would be a dollar taken away from the classroom,” Kemp and Woods wrote.
The Georgia Board of Education was prepared to consider renewal of the state’s $24.4 million contract with testing vendor Data Recognition Corp. at a meeting Thursday, but that item was pulled from the agenda due to uncertainty about the unfinished state budget.
Among its cuts, the Senate slashed the testing budget in half.
“If we have to test, and we don’t have that money, then that’s going to be a big issue,” Woods said at the teleconferenced state school board meeting. He said a federal waiver would solve that problem.
“Hopefully, we’ll be aggressively moving forward with the waiver process,” he said.
He and Kemp also wrote that, effective immediately, the Georgia Department of Education is suspending the teacher evaluation rating system for the upcoming school year. The system is based partly on test results.
The Georgia Association of Educators likes the test waiver idea, given the “unprecedented uncertainty facing our schools,” President Charlotte Booker said in a prepared statement. She asked that any money saved by canceling the tests be used to shore up essential services, such as counseling and nursing.
Also on the school board agenda were two other money-saving items: one to allow shorter school days and fewer of them, the other to strike the cap on the student-teacher ratio. Those waivers are needed “as a result of the unprecedented impacts of COVID-19 and the downturn in the economy,” the item says.
Those waivers were approved without discussion.
The statement by Kemp and Woods says they hope the federal government recognizes that the upcoming school year will be an unusual one as it considers their request to waive the tests.