We Must Pursue a Waiver for State Testing in 2021 for Our Students

State Board of Education and California Department of Education

The 2020-2021 school year is like no other. The pressure of a global pandemic has pushed students, educators, and our communities into unchartered territories of education. Our students need us to be both nimble and compassionate as we all navigate this new world of learning together. While we rise to the occasion every day, standardized testing in spring 2021 threatens an unnecessary strain and burden on our students and classrooms (whether they be hybrid or virtual).

Our state must pursue a waiver from testing for the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress (CAASPP) in English-language arts, mathematics and science for spring 2021. Otherwise we risk perpetuating the vast inequities in our state.

  • The results won’t be valid, reliable, or useful. We don’t need test scores to know that children living in poverty and attending poorly resourced schools have fallen even farther behind in a pandemic.
  • There are better ways to know how students from different backgrounds and learning needs fared during the pandemic. Instead of more testing, we should be focusing on solutions that address poverty, racial inequities, and school funding disparities.
  • Most parents oppose testing this spring. A mid-October “Understanding America Study” found that the majority of parents supported exam suspension. And there is strong opposition to testing, particularly among Black parents.
Educators are working tirelessly every day to help our students thrive. We must raise our voices together when something threatens to throw our progress off course. Please join us and sign the petition to the CDE and SBE to urge a waiver for state standardized tests in spring 2021.

To: State Board of Education and California Department of Education
From: [Your Name]

I implore both the State Board of Education and the California Department of Education to pursue a waiver for the required administration of the Every Student Succeeds Act ( ESSA ) state standardized tests in the spring of 2021. The results won’t be valid, reliable, or useful.

Given widespread inequities in student access to technology and the internet, as well as concerns about the validity and comparability of any data gathered from statewide summative testing administered remotely and taken under unknown and uncontrollable conditions, conducting state standardized testing in spring 2021 would be detrimental to students and of limited use to teachers, schools and school districts. Vast majorities of parents oppose standardized testing this spring.

Quite simply: instead of more testing, we should be focusing on supporting students in distance learning.

​Please work to truly meet California’s diverse needs and pursue a waiver from testing for state standardized tests in spring 2021. Otherwise, we risk perpetuating the vast inequities in our state.