Statement from The Education Trust-Midwest on USED’s denial of Michigan’s request to waive summative assessments requirement

On April 6, the U.S. Department of Education denied the Michigan Department of Education’s request to waive the federal requirement to administer this year’s state summative assessments.

The following statement can be attributed to Jennifer Mrozowski, Director of Communications for The Education Trust-Midwest, on the decision.

“The past year of interrupted learning has been like no other in recent memory.

“Especially for Michigan’s low-income and other underserved students, we need every tool possible to understand the impact of COVID-19 and how to support them in the near-term and for the next few years to ensure they not only catch up but accelerate.

“The U.S. Department of Education today took an important step in ensuring that Michigan parents, educators and policymakers will have critical data to better understand the impact of this unprecedented period of unfinished learning. The student assessment data also will be critical to informing how to invest state and federal dollars equitably so that funding is directed where it’s needed most.

“Recognizing that the data will be imperfect, and this will also be a testing year like no other, it makes sense to pause accountability this year. We should take this time to do everything possible to gain the fullest picture of the gaps from pandemic learning so that Michigan can experience a full educational recovery.”