Will state testing proceed in 2021? not to test or To TEST
“Our educators and district leaders need to shift their focus from assessments to essential services, including child nutrition and planning to continue student learning through alternative delivery methods,” Hofmeister said in a March 2020 statement. “Their priority cannot be with assessments that would be of questionable validity in the wake of a global pandemic.” By the time Hofmeister called for the waiver, the reality of home education was settling over Oklahoma teachers, parents and children. Students learned the ins and outs of video conferencing programs like Zoom while teachers looked for innovative ways to engage students in a virtual classroom, but the RSA test would not be part of that process. “It’s a federal requirement that we test students in the grades that we do in Oklahoma,” said Maria Harris, deputy superintendent of assessment and accountability with Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE). “The U.S. Department of Education only has the authority to be reactive to something like a pandemic to issue such waivers like they did. And so, because the pandemic hit, they were able to kind of scramble and put out a very automated process for states to waive these federal requirements.”
In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic reached critical mass in the United States, many plans had to fall by the wayside. As concerns grew over nearly every kind of public activity and coronavirus cases began to mount in Oklahoma, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister made a necessary call and asked for a waiver for the annual Reading Sufficiency Act (RSA) testing just one month before the scheduled statewide exam.
BY GEORGE LANG
Process the
“The snapshot of performance in the spring every year that we are federally required to give our students ... for teachers, it's a confirmation of information they already know about their kids,” said Harris. “For parents, it's additional information, and it is valuable information for both the state and for policymakers and for administrators and people like that, but it also is one data point.” According to Oklahoma Policy Institute, research shows that “retained students tend to have worse social-emotional outcomes and are more likely to drop out of school than similar students who are promoted.” The possibility that large numbers of students could be adversely impacted scholastically by the pandemic is concerning to Carrie Coppernoll Jacobs, board member for Oklahoma City Public School District, who believes her district could be facing an increase in its dropout rate after coronavirus lessens its hold.
Every Oklahoma public school student begins the march toward RSA in kindergarten. In grades kindergarten through third, the students are assessed for their reading ability, and those who do not reach grade-level reading ability are given a program of reading instruction (PRI). The child’s progress is monitored throughout the year until they reach grade-level reading. Then in third grade they take the RSA test at the end of the school year. If they fail to pass the test, they can either be retained in third grade, referred to summer academy reading program (SARP) and be promoted on the contingency that it is successfully completed or granted a promotion under an exemption.
24 METROFAMILYMAGAZINE.COM / JAN-FEB 2021
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