NSEA takes a particular interest in Budget 2697, the Nevada Department of Education budget on Assessments and Accountability. We believe the legislature has an opportunity to continue to streamline student assessments and achieve a savings in this budget.
This session, NSEA has spoken in support of SB83, authorizing the Department of Education to temporarily waive or pause mandated student assessments. We believe Nevada should formally ask the US Department of Education to reconsider their decision not to offer waivers from testing requirements this school year.
High-stakes standardized tests administered during the global health crisis should not determine a student’s future, evaluate educators, or punish schools; nor should they come at the expense of precious learning time that students could be spending with their educators. Over-testing has been a longstanding concern of classroom educators, as decades of standardized tests have shifted the focus in education away from student learning toward a culture of high stakes testing. Over the last two sessions, NSEA has worked to reduce the burden of standardized testing on our students and educators. This included helping to pass a 2017 bill from former Senator Woodhouse to audit and streamline the amount of time and resources spent on state tests. While small changes have been made over the last several years, the current crisis calls for a more substantive overhaul of state testing requirements.
NSEA has consistently expressed our concern that existing policy on student assessments, teacher evaluations, and school star ratings compromises the safe operation of schools during the COVID-19 crisis. These mechanisms have failed to foster the improvements in either achievement or student engagement they were intended to deliver. With a continued reliance on these old schemes, students and educators have counter incentives to come to school when sick; to teach to tests instead of teaching and reinforcing health and safety; and to maximize numbers and time in classrooms, even when that may be outside of health and safety guidelines. Further, drastic improvement in testing results during this most difficult school year, like the MAP reading results in the early grades, highlight just how ridiculous it is to conduct these tests during a pandemic.
Even without a pause on the federally mandated tests, a waiver is available to suspend the related high-stakes mechanisms, extend testing timelines, and even test fewer students. We believe Nevada should exercise this waiver and test the minimum number of students allowable. This will reduce the burden of testing in these difficult times and should achieve a savings in the budget on Assessments and Accountability for the upcoming biennium.
