President suspends national testing requirements

President Donald Trump announced Friday that the federal government would suspend national testing requirements this year because of the impact of the coronavirus, granting the waiver that Gov. Gavin Newsom and other governors had said they’d seek.

Trump made the announcement at his daily press conference. The decision grants a one-year suspension from testing mandates under the Every Student Succeeds Act. In California, that applies to the Smarter Balanced tests in math and English language arts, the new science tests and the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California for English learners

On Wednesday, Newsom issued an executive order suspending state testing. In a statement he said, “This time is stressful enough for students, families and educators without the additional burden of annual testing.”

Several states, including Texas, Florida and Washington also had suspended testing, and others were considering it. The Council of Chief State School Officers had lobbied for the nationwide suspension and praised Trump and the U.S. Department of Education for granting it.

The test data are a key element in the state’s school accountability system. It’s unclear what the impact of the suspension would have on the state’s system of measuring school and district progress, the California School Dashboard.