College of Education’s Sireci Calls on Biden Nominee to Waive Federal Accountability for Statewide Summative Assessments

Stephen Sireci
Stephen Sireci

In light of the disruptions on teachers and students caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Stephen Sireci, Distinguished University Professor of Education and director of the Center for Educational Assessment, has sent a letter co-signed by eight colleagues at five other institutions calling on U.S. Secretary of Education nominee Miguel Cardona to waive federal accountability for statewide summative assessments this year.

“We argue that 2021 mandated summative testing of students will not (indeed cannot) provide comparable student achievement data for accountability purposes,” Sireci and his co-signatories write. They ask Cardona to “encourage states to eliminate any high-stakes consequences associated with any such tests they may give this year,” providing three reasons for their recommendations.

First, they write that “statewide summative assessments administered during this academic year will not capture a representative sample of students and so will provide a misleading picture of students’ current proficiencies. Thus, they fail the criterion of comparability.”

They then point to the disruptive nature of education this year, saying that such assessments will be testing students on material they have not had the opportunity to learn. “In addition to being unfair, such assessment is likely to discourage students, who have already had a difficult year,” they write.

Finally, they assert that the pandemic has disrupted education in multifaceted and uneven ways. “Administration of statewide summative assessments is likely to be an additional disruption to education, rather than an activity that can support learning,” they conclude.

Joining Sireci in the consortium are Ernest Washington, UMass Amherst emeritus professor of education, Edmund Gordon, Jonothon Coulson and Madhabi Chatterji of the Teachers College at Columbia University, Eleanor Armour-Thomas of Queens College, Eva Baker of UCLA, Howard Everson of the City University of New York and Richard Duran of UC Santa Barbara.