Northwest Allen County Schools’ Board of School Trustees approved a resolution March 8 requesting the cancellation of state-mandated standardized testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NACS elementary schools were taking part in IREAD at the time the resolution was passed. However, the resolution urges state officials to consider canceling this year’s ILEARN test and other such tests. The resolution echoed the sentiments of a letter sent to the Statehouse on March 1, which was signed by 39 northeast Indiana superintendents, including NACS Superintendent Chris Himsel.

“During a pandemic, we think that there is a better use of time of instructional days than doing standardized tests, especially given the fact that we do our own local tests that are actually more useful for providing information for our teachers, administrators and parents,” Himsel said.

The resolution seeks to leverage the powers afforded in the Every Student Succeeds Act, and states that “The Biden administration recently affirmed ‘flexibility in the administration of statewide assessments.'”

The resolution states that “ILEARN offers little to zero actionable information that is valuable to teachers, administrators, or parents in regard to identifying learning strengths and learning needs of children” and “Our students need the available time to be devoted to instructional activities instead of diverting and disrupting it to accommodate onsite and remote learners while also adhering to COVID mitigation procedures.”

The resolution also states that Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) benchmark assessments, as opposed to ILEARN, “require far less instructional time and cause far fewer disruptions to learning schedules; and NWEA benchmark assessments can be administered at a cost far less than the state-mandated assessments.”

“NACS maintains historical information from previous administrations of the NWEA benchmark assessments that, when combined with the results of upcoming spring NWEA benchmark assessments, daily instructional activities, and teacher created assignments, projects, and assessments, help teachers and administrators identify learning needs of children, including learning needs that might be impacted by the pandemic,” the resolution states.

It goes on to conclude that the Board of School Trustees requests “the Indiana Department of Education, State Board of Education, and if necessary, the General Assembly to utilize the flexibility afforded in the (Every Student Succeeds Act), which the Biden administration recently affirmed, to cancel the 2021 administration of all state-mandated standardized tests, such as but not limited to, IREAD3, ILEARN, IAM, and ISTEP. … NACS is willing to share with the IDOE our results of the NWEA benchmark assessments in grades 3-8 and our results of high school assessments, such as but not limited to the PSAT, SAT, ACT, ASVAB, and AP, that will be used to inform our statutorily required school improvement plans.”