(Education Week) By Catherine Gewertz.
California’s Long Beach school district grabbed an opportunity offered by the Every Student Succeeds Act: It asked the state for permission to use the SAT college-entrance exam instead of the state’s required Smarter Balanced test in high school.
The state said no, becoming the first in the country to reject a new kind of testing flexibility offered under ESSA.
In a letter released this week, the state board rejected Long Beach’s request and said it has to keep using the Smarter Balanced exam in grade 11, according to EdSource.
In turning down the request from its third-largest district, California will probably have a lot of company. As we reported last month, few states so far seem inclined to allow districts to take advantage of ESSA’s invitation to substitute a “nationally recognized” high school test, such as the ACT or SAT, for a state-mandated assessment. (They’re being pretty cautious about diving into the innovative assessment pilot, too.)… Read the full article
