'Our teachers know where kids are:' Local legislators, superintendents react to federal testing requirements amid pandemic

Schools across the country will have to administer federally mandated testing following a letter from the U.S. Department of Education on Monday. In Ohio, where there was a push for reprieve in the Statehouse, the change caught some legislators by surprise, as campaign promises had signaled a potential stay in the high-stakes tests for the 2020-21 school year, said state Sen. Nathan Manning, R-North Ridgeville. Manning cosponsored a bill with Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, to seek a waiver for federal tests and suspend Ohio-only end-of-course exams for graduation. A companion piece seeking the same waivers is also in the Ohio House. "President Biden's release calls for flexibility and being able to accommodate the students and teachers, so I think there's still things that we can still change in terms of the federal mandated tests and there's also Ohio-mandated tests that we can certainly get rid of for this year." He added later, "It's certainly taken some wind out of the sails in terms of getting rid of all the federally mandated testing, but I still think we can help the local school districts, help the parents, help the students and teachers in some way." State Rep. Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville, chairs the House Education Committee. She didn't rule out canceling those extra tests this year. On Tuesday, the committee held a hearing on flexibility for taking the test, as well as eliminating some of the extra ones. Manning said she's hoping they can have a vote on the bill next week. With the new guidance, Manning said the committee didn't feel comfortable voting it out. It's possible the Statehouse could expand the testing window for districts. The state may still request a waiver for long-term accountability measures outlined by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and can look to shorten the tests or allow for them to be administered remotely or in the summer. Much like the 2019-20 school year, states will be required to issue a report card, though school rankings are not required. Normally the Ohio school report card includes A-F marks in 10 separate measures and six different components, including graduation and achievement. The 2019-20 school report card did not include individual component grades due to the cancellation of tests in March 2020, and the Biden administration's letter looks to apply similar waivers for the 2020-21 school year — though districts will be required to report chronic absenteeism data and information on students' access to technology and high-speed internet access. Locally, superintendents throughout the county were frustrated with the Biden administration's decision. Since Avon Lake Schools returned with five-day, in-person classes in the fall, teachers there have expended an "unbelievable amount of energy" to educate kids, Superintendent Bob Scott said. "Now it's February and now we have to do standardized, high-stake tests," he said. "Why? And for us, there's no good reason. When we look at what they said, the reasons why they want to do the testing, we can do all of those things without the testing — actually we can do them better." When Elyria Schools gave its third-grade reading test in the fall, 100 students didn't take it because they were home. Some parents already have said their students won't come in to take the tests, Superintendent Ann Schloss said, admitting frustration with Biden's decision. "I'm very disappointed in that stance," she said. "… I just don't understand why they think these tests are the be all, end all. I just don't get it." Biden's administration did say tests could be administered online, but that could also have its difficulties. Schloss said Chromebooks have to be prepared to offer those. And although the district has given out hotspots, that doesn't guarantee there won't be internet difficulties during a test. It takes about six weeks to do the testing, which Schloss said is a lot of missed time. In a year where learning has fallen behind because of the pandemic, Schloss said schools shouldn't have to waste valuable time to administer a test. "They can't afford to lose that much more instruction to take a test that's really invalid in my eyes," she said. Midview Superintendent Bruce Willingham said he expected the guidance, but that it was "disappointing and frustrating." "Do I think it's best for kids? Absolutely not," he said. Schools across the county already administer beginning and end-of-year checkpoints, often using either MAP or NWEA testing to measure student growth. Both are approved by the state and aligned to its standards. Schloss said public officials have to trust that teachers know where students are and what they need. A state test doesn't give the needed information in a normal year, she said, but it is particularly lacking in a pandemic. Scott agreed. "Our teachers know where kids are," he said. "They have them every day, they know where they are in reading and they not only know where they are in reading in comparison to the rest of the kids in their class but they know where they are according to grade level." Lorain Schools CEO Jeff Graham said he can't imagine the data gathered from the tests will be useful for his district to act on — and while there's some flexibility in how the tests can be administered, it's going to be a challenge to give it to students. Lorain Schools only recently returned to some in-person learning in mid-January. When it administered other mandated testing this school year, students were required to come into the buildings to take the exams. "I'm not sure what information they're trying to gather," he said. "(Other than) to see what kind of dip there is during a pandemic — I don't know. I just don't know how you justify that." The tests also put an added stress on students, Willingham said, especially when there's high stakes put on the tests. Some kids have also been quarantined multiple times throughout the year. Scott agreed. Families can also opt out of the tests, which could skew results. "Is this going to give us something that we can work with individual kids, classes, schools — and the answer is no," he said. "This is going to be completely unreliable data. Just the fact that there have been so many different learning platforms … How can you possibly say that any test is going to be reliable?" Midview focused on getting kids back to school with safety protocols, and engaging with students so they can mentally stay on track, Willingham said. Students have struggled with anxiety and depression that has only been elevated by the pandemic. To throw testing on top of that seems "oxymoronic," he said. "That ends up being the focus over what really matters," he said. Ohio also spends about $68 million on state testing, according to 2014 Fordham Institute data. Willingham said that money could be better spent for what students and families actually need. "We don't live and die by test scores," he said. "We never have, and we never will. We don't get too high when the scores are great, and we don't get too low when the scores aren't so great. It's one test at one time." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com. Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.