Standardized testing should resume, disability rights groups say

A coalition of 25 disability rights groups is urging Miguel Cardona — who’s undergoing confirmation hearings this week to be President Joe Biden’s Education Secretary — to reinstate standardized testing for all students beginning this spring.

According to the coalition, students with disabilities have been disproportionately harmed by the lack of testing during the pandemic, because special education has been such a challenge to provide virtually. Services for disabled students have varied widely by school and district, and without standardized testing it’s impossible to know how those students are faring, said Meghan Whittaker, director of policy and advocacy for the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

“Without assessments, we have no way to know how much these students have learned,” Whittaker said. “And if assessments are waived again this year, we’ll lose two years of data.”

Last year, after the coronavirus pandemic forced most schools to transition to distance learning, then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos allowed states to waive the annual standardized tests required under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Students enrolled in special education still received some assessments through their individualized education programs, which DeVos did not waive, but — along with their peers in general education classes — they did not take the usual math, language arts and science tests required of students beginning in third grade.

Cardona, who is expected to be confirmed, is likely to decide within the next few weeks whether testing will resume this spring. The testing window begins in March and closes at the end of the school year.

The Autism Society of America, Disability Rights and Education Fund, National Down Syndrome Congress and American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities are among the groups that issued the statement.