Standardized exams face a huge test

One of the biggest casualties of the coronavirus pandemic has been the normal rhythms and learning patterns of public education. For four months in the past academic year, all students learned remotely, and many have not returned to in-person instruction.

The federal government wants to measure how the pandemic has impacted learning, which in many cases has suffered dramatically. More insight on how hybrid and long-distance-learning models compare to traditional classroom instruction is also welcome. Proper and rigorous testing could answer these questions and expose whether, and how, learning gaps increased in the most-challenged districts during COVID-19.

But the decision by the federal government this week to deny New York a requested waiver from standardized testing does not mean that the testing that will take place can provide the data the federal government seeks. All 50 states received such waivers last year.

The refusal to allow the states to skip testing this year is as much a policy message from a new administration that testing will be considered an important part of plans to improve outcomes as it is about collecting this year’s data.

Acting Assistant Secretary of Education Ian Rosenblum, who announced Monday that there would be no blanket waivers this year, is a bloodied veteran of the testing wars in his previous role heading the New York branch of Education Trust, a non-profit devoted to school equity. And he believes standardized testing supports that cause by highlighting the deficiencies of districts serving students of color and the economically disadvantaged.

This is, in normal times, correct. The refusal of the waivers is a needed signal to an education establishment increasingly scornful of standardized tests that the Biden administration is going to use this tool. But what does that mean for this chaotic year, when administering tests in a fair and even way would be all but impossible?

The federal Department of Education’s announcement said students and schools cannot be penalized for their scores, and students learning remotely should not be made to come back to classrooms to be tested. High school seniors can’t be denied a diploma for failing or refusing to take Regents exams and the meager 50% state test-participation rate of third through eighth graders on Long Island is likely to plummet further.

But there may be ways to salvage the situation. States can modify their tests, and reschedule them into the next school year, an option New York should consider. Tests administered next October, assuming school is back to normal, could tell education officials what they need to know about the pandemic’s toll. A fall testing date would come after the expanded summer offerings that some districts are considering to help struggling students catch up.

The pandemic has exposed, more than ever before, inequities in the education system, and we cannot look away from understanding and responding to those needs.

— The editorial board