(LibertySociety.com) – The COVID-19 pandemic and its shutdowns have not been great for students. School districts across the country are reporting an alarming number of kids are failing. On November 25, a federal agency made a major change to education, but it was lost in the news cycle dominated by the election and COVID-19 surge.
The US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) issued an order postponing the standardized tests scheduled for 2021. The agency explained that the “impact of the COVID pandemic on school operations” has made it impossible to reliably conduct the congressionally mandated National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress has gone forward, rain or shine, since the 1970s.
But as it has with so many other aspects of schooling, the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the NAEP testing schedule. https://t.co/TKZMTjTxns
— Education Week (@educationweek) December 1, 2020
The federal government’s decision to postpone the test until 2022 will give students more time to prepare for the vital exams. NCES Commissioner James Woodworth explained pushing the test back means the government will get more reliable data. If the tests moved forward now, the agency would have to spend “tens of millions of dollars” and wouldn’t be able to conduct the test again for another two years by law. This decision protects kids and taxpayers.
Copyright 2020, LibertySociety.com
