By Madeline Stewart
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The Maryland State Board of Education voted Tuesday to continue with plans to administer standardized testing in the remainder of the 2021 school year to assess the effects of online learning on Maryland students impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The vote came less than a day after the U.S. Department of Education announced that states still would be required to administer federal standardized tests this year. Standardized testing requirements were waived in 2020 after the sudden closing of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A new test, The Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), will be administered to students in grades three through eight, and in high schools, officials said. The MCAP will replace the previous Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam.
Maryland State Superintendent Karen Salmon approved a proposal not to test in science or social studies for the 2021 school year. The MCAP test will test in the subjects of mathematics and English language arts. Together, the two sections of the exam will take more than seven hours of testing time, a concern for educators with limited classroom time in the current hybrid learning models.
Salmon stressed that gathering standardized data after a year of online schooling was needed to see if substantial learning loss has occurred. She added that standard tests also are important for parents to know if their students meet grade-level expectations. Results of standardized testing will not have consequences for schools but will be used to allocate resources and build curriculum for the 2021-2022 school year, Salmon said.
The motion to continue with planning to administer the MCAP passed with a 12-1 vote after an amendment to make efforts to shorten testing time proposed by board member Rose Li passed 10-4.
The seven-hour testing time for the exams already has been shortened by two-thirds of its original length, officials said. The Board of Education estimated that it could take six to eight days to administer the full exam, while students in most school districts in the state only receive in-person instruction for two days a week in the current hybrid learning models.
Of Maryland’s 24 school systems, 18 will be open for hybrid learning for all grade levels in March. Remaining school systems have announced April opening dates with some middle and high schools returning at a later date. Somerset County is currently the only school system with all students in school five days a week.
In the public opinion hearing at the beginning of the Board of Education meeting, educators stressed that many students will only get approximately 22 days back in the classroom in the remainder of the school year and wanted to see that time used for instruction other than standardized testing.
“We need to lower stress levels in school, not raise them,” said Cheryl Bost, president of the Maryland State Education union. “Students need time to reconnect with their educators and peers, not spend time in front of a computer taking a test they’ve never seen.”
How the test will be administered in-person with reduced staff, or to students who opt-out of the hybrid learning model and remain completely online will be announced at a later date, officials said.