The U.S. Department of Education (USED) has denied Michigan’s request to waive the federal requirement to administer the state summative assessments, the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) reported Tuesday.
In late January, given the COVID-19 pandemic that has disrupted the education of Michigan’s 1.5 million students, MDE requested waivers to federal requirements for state summative tests, as well as waivers of associated high-stakes accountability requirements. The accountability waivers were approved on March 26.
With USED denying Michigan’s request to waive the federal requirement for state summative assessments, local school districts will be expected to administer the state tests as scheduled.
These tests include M-STEP for students in grades 3-8; PSAT 8/9 for students in 8th grade; MME, including SAT, for students in 11th grade; MI-ACCESS for students receiving special education services in grades 3-8 and 11; and WIDA for students in English learner programs in grades K-12.
“This is beyond disappointing. It's shameful,” said Dr. Ulbrich, State Board of Education president. “USED had an opportunity to do the right thing for the right reasons, and instead chose to appease special interests rather than support students.
“Michigan citizens, educators and parents will get virtually no useful and actionable information from this year’s state tests. It would be shameful now if the state legislature used these 'results' to impose negative consequences on children or schools.
MDE has informed school districts that during the COVID-19 pandemic, it does not support requiring otherwise remote or virtual students to be brought into school solely for the purpose of state assessment.
Districts will have to offer remote or virtual students the opportunity to come into school to take the appropriate state summative assessments. However, those remote-only students will not be required to come into school for the sole purpose of taking the assessments.
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