April 7 Amended Assessment Waiver Update and Parent "Opt-In" Information

DTCs,

Good morning and happy Wednesday. The Assessment Team has an important update to share, as well as information regarding parent opt-in context and considerations.

Amended Assessment Waiver Update

ODE’s amended assessment waiver request, submitted on April 1, 2021, has been conditionally approved by the United States Department of Education on April 6, 2021. The approval is contingent upon review of the public comment results, which ends on April 9, 2021, and any changes ODE might make to our waiver request pursuant to public comments. ODE continues to recommend that districts/public charter schools prepare for state summative assessment according to the following test schedule, which was included in our amended assessment waiver:

ODE has submitted a separate Accountability Addendum, which would remove (1) the expectation that state assessment data be used to identify schools for comprehensive or targeted improvement and (2) the 95% participation requirement. Approval from USDE is expected. USDE will require ODE to publicly report state assessment results from spring 2021.

Given the expected removal of the 95% participation requirement, ODE does not anticipate fiscal consequences for the state or our districts related to participation rates, provided that districts and public charter schools make good faith efforts to administer required assessments and make all state assessments available for parents and families.

Parent Opt-In Information

ODE has received several questions about parent "opt-in" approaches. We are referring all such questions to the response we’ve already provided for Question #8 in the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Assessment Team’s Communication webpage, which reads as follows:

8. Can a school board or public charter school implement a district-wide policy that requires parents to opt-in to state assessments this year?

Answer: ODE understands that some districts/public charter schools will be exploring actions to make state assessments a parent opt-in model for this school year. Having parents opt-in to state assessments is a violation of Division 22 requirements (OAR 581-022-2100), which would require an acknowledgement of such by the Superintendent when assurances are submitted as well as a corrective action plan to come into compliance in the 2021-22 school year.

It is important to point out that ODE does not have and will not develop a parent “opt-in” policy, nor will we provide districts with resources needed to effect such practices – which run counter to Division 22 requirements. Oregon’s parent opt-out process remains a requirement and must be documented using ODE’s required parent opt-out form (or content equivalent for districts who are employing more flexible, electronic solutions, such as Google forms, to coordinate this process). In terms of documentation of student participation, districts and public charter schools cannot code parents who do not “opt-in” as opt-outs using Code “X” – the definition of Administrative Code X- Parent opt-out provided in our Test Administration Manual (Page 70) is: “A student whose parent(s) submitted an opt-out form requesting that the student not participate in ELA and Mathematics or Extended Math or ELA testing.”

Please contact Dan Farley, Director of Assessment, with any questions, comments, or recommendations.