Covid, NAEP and Mandated State Assessments

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) postponed the scheduled January 2021 administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the NAEP test) citing an inability to provide reliable and valid results and comparisons “due to the impact of the COVID pandemic on school operations.”

Don’t for minute think that this means that spring testing will again be postponed at the state level… in fact, Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos appears to see high stakes testing during a pandemic as the perfect opportunity to advance her privation agenda.

In a statement, James Woodworth, PhD, Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), said “Too many students are receiving their education through distance learning or are physically attending schools in locations where outside visitors to the schools are being kept at a minimum due to COVID levels” and, especially given that COVID infection rates differ greatly from state to state during any one time, a 2021 NAEP administration would not be able to provide national or state comparisons with sufficient validity and reliability.

Woodsworth also noted that since NAEP uses shared equipment and outside proctors to ensure a consistent assessment experience across the nation, he was “concerned about sending outsiders into schools and possibly increasing the risk of COVID transmission.”

U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos approved of the postponement of NAEP testing but continues to insist that mandated assessments at the state level must proceed as usual.

On the day before the USDOE officially postponed the 2021 NAEP, Secretary DeVos wrote to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asking for the postponement of the mandated assessment and asking the National Center for Education Statistics — the branch of the USDOE responsible for the NAEP — to stop any further spending in preparation for the January exam.

“We are facing the reality that, even though Congress has provided billions of dollars in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act resources and the Administration has directed significant amounts of test kits and personal protective equipment to our schools, too few schools will be providing in-school instruction or welcoming outside test administrators this winter to ensure a sufficiently large sample of NAEP participants needed to produce usable national or state data on what students know and can do in reading and mathematics for 2021. Consequently, I have asked NCES to postpone any further expenditures on the 2021 NAEP preparations.”

Yep, rather than blaming the disruption caused by a global pandemic, she is declares the inability to obtain usable NAEP data is due to “too few schools… providing in-school instruction or welcoming outside test administrators” despite CARES funding from Congress and “significant amounts of test kits and personal protective equipment to our schools” by the Trump Administration. It is the schools’ fault. Of course it is.

The cost of administering the NAEP assessments during Covid was, apparently, one of the NCES’ primary considerations for delaying the test. In order to obtain valid and reliable results during the disruption of the global pandemic, it would have cost an estimated additional $65 million to conduct the tests in smaller groups, allowing appropriate social distancing, and to hire and train 7,000 testing administrators — 4,000 more than normally needed. Many on the National Assessment Governing Board, who sets policies and schedules for the national tests, were reluctant to make the additional funding request during a recession.

The NAEP assessment, first administered in 1990 and often referred to as the “Nation’s Report Card,” is the only common assessment that allows comparisons in various subjects across the nation, states, and in some urban districts. NAEP is given to a representative sample of students across the country attending both public and private schools. Results are reported for groups of students with similar characteristics (e.g., gender, race and ethnicity, school location), not individual students. In January 2021, 4th and 8th grade Reading and Math assessments were scheduled. These will now be postponed to 2022.

Because the NAEP relies on a representative sample of students, during a routine administration, the testing of between 10,000 and 20,000 students, NATIONWIDE, is needed to report national results. Reporting results for states and the the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) districts, requires a sample of approximately 3,000 students from approximately 100 schools in each participating jurisdiction.  In contrast, 50.7 million students attend K-12 public schools and those in 3rd-8th grade (and at least once in high school) are subject to annual state mandated assessments per the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, the 2015 rewrite of No Child Left Behind). Private schools, which serve 5.7 million students nationwide, generally are not required to administer state assessments, though some private schools may choose to do so, so it appears private schools will be offered a pass during Covid…

As we all know, Covid’s impact on schools and communities varies over time and geographically. Currently, Covid risk levels are high in essentially every state. Will risks be lower during spring assessment administration? Who knows? We do know there are few school districts who have been completely untouched by the disruption. Look here to see which counties have the highest number of Covid cases today. Is there any state where state assessments could provide reliable and valid comparisons between schools and districts? Will states be able to safely and reliably assess the large number of students currently engaged in virtual instruction?

Even if the assessments could be given safely, should the results be used in the “usual” way? In Florida, state assessments are used to evaluate teachers, award school and district grades and bonuses, identify low performing schools in need of “turnaround” or added Reading instruction. Will state assessments administered during a pandemic be used to, once again, label teachers and schools as failing? Will such ratings be reliable, valid or even helpful during a pandemic? Remember, by pausing NAEP, private schools are given a pass this year, so any “failings” associated with the Covid pandemic will (conveniently) only be identified in public schools.

The cost of standardized testing in the United States is reported to be $1.7 BILLION per year, at least $669 million of which is spent on ESSA/No Child Left Behind spring assessment mandates. In a cash strapped year, could this money be better spent?

Suggesting that administration of the NAEP to 20,000 students during Covid would be both unsafe and unreliable, while insisting that the administration of state assessments to almost 30 million children, many currently being educated at home to avoid Covid exposure, can proceed safely and produce valid and reliable results is absurd. Concerns regarding spending an additional $65 million to ensure a valid and reliable administration of what is considered “the gold standard in large-scale assessments” but insisting on proceeding with $669+ million assessments of questionable value is equally ridiculous.

In a September 3, 2020 letter to Chief State School Officers, DeVos warned that, despite the universal granting of state assessment waivers in the spring of 2020, states “should not anticipate such waivers being granted again.” She warned the failure to assess students would have “a lasting effect for years to come” and that “opponents of reform, like labor unions, have already begun to call for the permanent elimination of testing. If they succeed in eliminating assessments, transparency and accountability will soon follow.” Rather than shy away from the challenges of testing in a pandemic, DeVos urged the state leaders to use the pandemic to restructure spring testing, rethink state assessments and embrace the advancement of online, competency based education, a longtime goal of the privatization/ed reform crowd.

Who thinks this school year is a good time to restructure or rewrite state assessments or radically transform their schools towards competency based education? How would testing with drastically altered assessments aid in identifying the pandemic’s impact on student learning? Who dreams up this nonsense?

So, to summarize:

• The NAEP is cancelled because $65 million is too much to spend to ensure a safe, reliable and valid administration of what is considered the “gold standard” of large-scale standardized assessments. Also, it is the schools’ fault that the NAEP must be postponed.
• States, however, should proceed with $669+ million state assessments because, somehow, these assessments can produce valid, usable results and be administered in a safe, reliable and fair way, despite the disruptions of the COVID pandemic.
• Private schools, even those receiving public funds, need not bother with assessments this year. Apparently, it is not necessary to identify learning gaps (or any “failures”) in private schools.
• If spring assessments aren’t given this year, labor unions and other “opponents of reform” will succeed in eliminating not only 2021 testing but, ultimately, transparency and accountability as well.
• Despite the pandemic, this is a great time to radically transform public education. Not only should states administer their spring assessments but they should capitalize on the pandemic to radically transform public education into the online, work force development, competency based system which ed reformers, like DeVos, have been advocating for more than a decade.

Sigh… my Christmas wish is for a new Secretary of Education who will waive the 2021 testing requirement and support public schools… Is that too much to ask for?