The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) held a virtual town hall this week to urge individuals to sign a petition calling for high-stakes testing to be suspended in spring 2021.
High-stakes testing focuses on reading and math skills. The University of Southern California recently released a study that showed support for canceling tests rose from 43% in mid-April to 64% in mid-October. In fact, 72% of Black parents were in favor of cancellation.
Given the unprecedented and disparate situations under which students have been learning due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the panelists agreed that test results would only highlight inequities in public education. One huge consideration is the logistics of bringing students back to school, which can be dangerous for their health and well-being.
“To get all the students tested is very difficult, nearly impossible,” said Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig, dean of the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. He said high-stakes testing is inherently discriminatory.
“It is the right thing for us to pause and reassess the regimes of testing that we see nationwide and state-to-state,” he added.
FairTest has long advocated against what it calls the biases of standardized testing.
During Tuesday’s panel, experts noted that many students, particularly low-income students, don’t have access to technology at home. Some students have been loaned computers by their schools, but the schools would need to recall those computers for testing purposes.
