Even NC students in virtual classes may have to come to school for standardized tests
Updated Aug. 6
The majority of North Carolina public school students will start the new school year learning from home because of the coronavirus pandemic, but they could still be required to come to school to take standardized tests.
North Carolina schools haven’t received state and federal waivers from giving standardized tests to measure student academic performance for the 2020-21 school year. As a result, the state Department of Public Instruction is recommending testing students whenever they return to campus or letting school districts bring students into schools for the exams.
“What we know today is we have to proceed with the best proposal that we can,” Tammy Howard, DPI director of accountability services, told the State Board of Education on Wednesday.
DPI is also proposing letting school districts use unused spring state exams to test students at the beginning of the school year.
The state board approved the proposal on Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Education requires that states test their students as a way to hold schools accountable. The General Assembly uses the test results to grade schools and to give bonuses to teachers and principals.
But due to the COVID-19 pandemic closing schools in mid-March, both the General Assembly and the U.S. Department of Education gave schools waivers from giving the tests in the spring.
Waiver from testing students has expired
Howard said it’s possible that waivers may not be approved for this school year so they have to be ready to give the exams,
The challenge is that the majority of school districts and dozens of charter schools have opted to begin the school year with remote learning only because they say it’s not yet safe to resume in-person instruction. Even in districts that are reopening for limited in-person instruction, many students there signed up to take virtual classes to avoid going on campus.
Some exams, such as the beginning-of-grade exam, are supposed to be given to third-grade students within the first 20 days of the school year. End-of-course exams are taken by most high school students at the end of the semester, with end-of-grade exams being given in the spring.
DPI is recommending that the state board pick one of two options for the 2020-21 school year tests:
▪ If students are remote, the tests are administered when the students return to school or
▪ As a local decision, public school units may arrange for students to take the tests at a school sanctioned site that meets the Department of Health and Human Services requirements.
“This part of the recommendation is not to require school systems or charter schools to insist that students report to a school to have tests administered,” Howard said. “It gives local flexibility that they do that if they feel comfortable and if that is what is best for them.”
But students who signed up for virtual programs to take all their classes remotely will still be required to take their state exams in-person. In Wake County alone, more than 82,000 students signed up for the district’s new Virtual Academy program.
“Statewide accountability assessments must be administered face-to-face,” Graham Wilson, a DPI spokesman, said in an email Wednesday.
Using the spring exams
Students may also be asked to take other tests amid the pandemic.
DPI doesn’t want the unused spring exams to go to waste. They’re proposing allowing schools to use them to test the students at the beginning of the school year.
Howard said those tests would help parents, teachers and school leaders see where students stand academically. Since those tests aren’t required, DPI says they could be taken remotely from home or in-person at school.
Howard said it’s uncertain how many districts will want to give those tests. Howard said DPI can look at whether to give parents the ability to opt out of the exams.
The results from those tests can be used by schools to set a baseline to help determine growth scores when students take the exams this upcoming school year’s exams, according to DPI.
DPI has other recommendations, including asking state lawmakers for more flexibility on when to give the end-of-grade and end-of-course exams.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 10:50 AM with the headline "Even NC students in virtual classes may have to come to school for standardized tests."
