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The U.S. Department of Education has granted Vermont a waiver from mandated standardized testing this school year, state officials said Monday. The federal government had announced Friday that it would be granting such waivers upon request to any state impacted by COVID-19 closures.
The agency applied for the waiver on Saturday and received it Sunday.
“I am pleased our waiver request was processed so quickly,” Vermont Secretary of Education Dan French said in a statement. “This waiver will allow us to prioritize our efforts for providing continued support, education and wellbeing of our students during this challenging time.”
Vermont’s K-12 schools were closed on Gov. Phil Scott’s orders starting Wednesday until April 6, although state officials have suggested from the start schools were likely to remain shuttered for a much longer period of time.
Within the span of just a week, the pandemic has shut down the vast majority of schools across the country. Forty-six states have closed their schools, according to a running tally by Education Week, and Kansas has said schools will be closed for the year.
Vermont, like many states, has indicated it expects schools to keep kids progressing academically using remote learning in the event of a prolonged closure. But school officials have expressed concerns that online learning could leave some children behind – particularly those who lack access to high-speed internet at home, and special education students.
“Neither students nor teachers need to be focused on high-stakes tests during this difficult time. Students are simply too unlikely to be able to perform their best in this environment,” U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement Friday.
The waiver means Vermont won’t need to administer its regular statewide tests this spring. That includes the Smarter Balanced Assessments, or SBACs, in math and English, the Next Generation Science Standards Assessment, the Vermont Physical Education Assessment, and the Vermont Alternate Assessments.
Jeff Francis, the executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association, called the waiver “very helpful and logical during this period of crisis response.”
Darren Allen, a spokesperson for the Vermont-NEA, said the union “absolutely” supported the waiver.
“We think that a time when students’ lives have been disrupted and educators’ lives have been disrupted, and everybody’s lives have been disrupted, administering these high-stakes tests makes absolutely no sense,” he said.