FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On February 5, 2021, the Office of Public Instruction (OPI) submitted to the U. S. Department of Education (USED) a federal assessment waiver. Montana is among a group of eight states, which have applied for a waiver of the federally mandated tests. The OPI stated in its waiver application that OPI will “take a deliberate step this academic year to protect the quality of these important assessments with this waiver application so future stakeholders can have confidence with these data.” While OPI recognizes that state testing is an important component of Montana’s Consolidated Plan under ESSA, the health, wellbeing, and safety of Montana’s students is the number one priority of Superintendent Arntzen.
Yesterday, the OPI met with representatives of USED to discuss the status of Montana’s application to waive the federally mandated statewide assessments. We are providing you with the following update.
- The current assessment schedule remains in effect.
- However, we remind you to put the health, wellbeing, and safety of students first, and medical exemptions from state assessments are available for families.
- The OPI is focused on the local school district having full flexibility to choose what is best for them during these uncertain times. This is the key discussion with USED.
- The OPI is proposing several options for schools:
- Taking the shortened SBAC. The window opens on March 8, 2021.
- Use local interim assessment in place of the federally mandated statewide assessments.
- The OPI will be able to use Meta-Metric to collate performance data (i. e., from MAPS, STAR, and SBAC interims) to provide a statewide snapshot.
- The OPI is proposing administering Opportunity to Learn (OTL) surveys of students and teachers related to opportunities for learning no later than early May 2021.
The OPI reinforced Montana’s system of local control in its discussion with USED yesterday, and the OPI has made clear with our federal partners that decisions are best left to the local level.
We look forward to providing you an update on the status of Montana’s assessment waiver of the federally mandated statewide assessments after the USED follow-up call tentatively scheduled for next week.
Contact:
Dr. Greg Dern, Communications Director, 406-444-3449
The OPI is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation, require an alternate format, or have questions concerning accessibility, contact the OPI ADA Coordinator, 406-444-3161, opiada@mt.gov, Relay Service: 711.
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