Pause in school testing gives us a chance to question what we want to teach and measure

After a pandemic-fraught school year, Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal is not going to require students to take federally mandated tests this spring. Unable to get a federal waiver that would allow testing of just a representative sample of students, he has opted to postpone testing altogether until next fall.

In a blistering news release, Reykdal called out the “testing-industrial complex” and plans to explore how to get longer term waivers from the tests.

“It is inexcusable to proceed with business-as-usual testing this spring that annually requires over 4.7 million hours of time that would be better spent on advancing student learning, relationship building, and the provision of mental and behavioral health supports,” Reykdal wrote.

“Washington taxpayers have spent over $425 million in our state alone since 2010 on federally mandated tests,” Reykdal continued. “These tests have not closed racial and other equity gaps, informed teaching and learning decisions at the local level, or improved student mental health.

“This spring, school districts will already be administering locally determined assessments to understand individual student needs as schools plan for the supports they will provide over the summer, next school year, and beyond.”

Conflicts over student testing has been rising for years. But the debate about testing started in the early 1990s, when graduation rates were low and employers complained that many high school graduates couldn’t write and spell well enough fill out a job application. There was a widespread perception that educators too often passed kids from one grade to the next without regard to what they were actually learning.

Reformers argued that kids were given diplomas for just showing up for 12 years. Diplomas, they said, had lost their value. And there were gaping disparities between middle- and upper-class white kids on the one hand, and kids of color and those from low-income families on the other.

Reformers passed state legislation that called for clear academic standards, tests to measure whether students met them, and rigorous requirements for earning a diploma. They were confident that clear data about the racial and economic gaps would make schools accountable for closing them.

Subsequent federal legislation doubled down on those ideas.

The current version of the mandated test, called the Smarter Balanced Assessment, is keyed to the national standards of the Common Core in English and math.

While these tests remain controversial, academic standards have been widely accepted. The standards stress critical thinking, problem-solving and analytical skills — definitely an improvement over requiring kids to memorize all 50 state capitals.

Teachers’ unions generally despise the mandated tests, but teachers are divided. Some seem to agree that the combination of clear academic standards and tests to measure whether students meet them have raised the bar for school accountability, and encouraged teachers to collaborate with one another.

But some prefer other tests that offer more precise diagnostics showing what specific skills or knowledge kids need help with. And some wish for a test given at the beginning and end of each school year so that teachers know where to start with each student, and, at the end of the year, how much students have learned in their classroom. This, they say, would also be a more accurate measure for teacher accountability and improvement.

Some teachers also lament the tendency for the tested subjects to crowd out attention to social studies, the arts, and other subjects.

Teachers also point to other changes that can move the dial on student achievement. One recent innovation is curriculum about “social and emotional learning,” which teaches kids to recognize their own and others’ emotions, to build empathy and acceptance of differences, and to develop skills needed to prevent and resolve conflicts. A fourth-grade teacher reports that since she’s incorporated this practice, she sees fewer discipline problems, peace on the playground, and a class that is more welcoming of newcomers and accepting of differences.

There has been progress in narrowing the gaps in achievement based on race and income. For instance, since 2013, the gap between Black and white kids’ high school graduation rates has narrowed from 14 percent to 8 percent. And while testing will not close them, we do think it’s important to have public data that tell us how schools are doing at this central challenge.

Equally important, our schools need authentic, accurate curriculum on American/Black history, and on the history and cultures of other students of color. And educators need more and better professional development to erase disparities in student discipline and implicit bias.

We are grateful to all our teachers and education leaders for their heroic work through the pandemic, and hope they get all the instructional time and support they need to help every student thrive in school and in life.