Educators across Illinois say that federally-mandated testing would add too much stress to a school year already rife with problems. | Stock Photo
Educators across Illinois say that federally-mandated testing would add too much stress to a school year already rife with problems. | Stock Photo
Hundreds of school superintendents from across the state recently signed a letter to the U.S. Department of Education requesting that federally-mandated testing be waived for this academic year.
The superintendents’ joint position is getting support from the Illinois State Board of Education.
Even though schools had some experience from the end of last academic year with handling education during the pandemic and the summer to prepare, solutions have been far from perfect. Educators are concerned about mandated tests creating more problems, WMBD reported.
“Nobody is necessarily in the same spot in how they’ve been delivering education or how students have been attending or have been engaged,” Marjorie Greuter, superintendent at East Peoria CHSD No. 309, said, WMBD reported.
Additionally, testing would require bringing students in-person to the schools, with the need to have at least 95% attendance, according to WMBD.
“This would just be one more added thing on top of us right now when we’re just trying to meet the needs of our students and our staff and to make sure that we’re keeping our building safe and our focus on the students,” Andrew Brooks, superintendent for the Delavan School District No. 703, said, WMBD reported.
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