Gov. Dannel Malloy praised the decision, saying it will allow the state "to adapt with the changing times."
There will be one less test for eleventh graders this coming school year – at least for students who plan on taking the SATs as part of the college application process.
For students who didn’t plan on attending college, the number of standardized tests remains the same. The only difference is that instead of the controversial SBAC test, which was developed as part of the push toward the Common Core State Standards, high school juniors can take the SAT.
State lawmakers and the governor recently approved a plan to let juniors use the SAT instead of the SBAC, which stands for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. However, this move required a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education before it could be implemented. This happened on Thursday.
Connecticut – along with six other states – was granted a waiver from compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act, which mandates that federal tests be given to all public school students in grades three through eight, and one in high school. Connecticut used to give the high school test to sophomores, but switched recently to eleventh graders.
Last September, Governor Dannel Malloy sent the U.S. Department of Education a letter, asking for a chance to “explore solutions for the students who may be our most over-tested: our eleventh graders.”
The state has been granted this flexibility since 2012. Under No Child Left Behind, which was passed during the George W. Bush administration, “schools were given many ways to fail but very few opportunities to succeed,” stated a press release from the federal education department. “The law forced schools and districts into one-size-fits-all solutions, regardless of the individual needs and circumstances in those communities.”
Malloy praised the decision, saying it will allow the state “to adapt with the changing times.”
The announcement of the waiver coincided with a press conference held by the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. Union leaders discussed findings of a survey they commissioned which found that most surveyed teachers felt that SBAC had a negative impact on student learning, and exacerbated inequalities.
CEA President Sheila Cohen said that SBAC results should be analyzed with caution.
“The results from the new SBAC tests… are likely not a valid indicator of student knowledge,” she said.
Kelly Donnelly, a spokesman for the State Department of Education, said the SBAC will provide results that previous tests did not.
“Unlike the results of our previous test, the [SBAC] will let parents know if their child is on track to meet grade level expectations,” she said.
State education officials have not announced when SBAC results will be released to school districts or parents. Traditionally these scores are released in mid- to late-summer, and parents are given individual student scores in September.
“While there is not a set date at the moment, it is very much our intention to convene the workgroup in September when individuals have returned from summer break,” Donnelly said of the release date for SBAC.
