Dive Brief:

• California is poised for another fight with the U.S. Department of Education after it rejected the state’s waiver application, which asked for permission to skip the California Standards Test in science this year as it transitions to new standards and tests.
• EdSource reports the California Standards Test is based on outdated science standards, and school districts in the state have already begun teaching to the newer Next Generation Science Standards even though tests aligned with the NGSS will take three years to pilot and then scale statewide.
• The Education Department recommended giving the old test but embedding pilot questions for the NGSS-aligned assessment in development, but state officials have bristled at the requirement to waste instruction time administering a test that doesn’t assess what's happening in classrooms — especially given the Obama administration’s push to reduce unnecessary testing.

Dive Insight:

Standardized tests have become an important accountability tool when it comes to serving students from disadvantaged populations. English language learners, students with disabilities, poor students, and black and Latino students have historically been overlooked in schools. The federal accountability system mandated by No Child Left Behind has created its fair share of problems and perverse incentives, but it has made the nation’s inequities particularly clear and it created a mandate to improve services.

The Every Student Succeeds Act sends a lot more power back to the states, and depending on the next president, states and districts may not be forced to comply with particularly rigorous federal expectations. This shift will be an experiment in how committed state and local educators are to success for all students.