No assessments for students

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
In what Weston County School District No. 1 Superintendent Brad LaCroix said is one of the smartest things he has seen the federal government do in some time, the U.S. Department of Education has granted the state a waiver from certain federal assessments and accountability requirements in light of widespread school closures due to the spread of COVID-19.
“As a result, Wyoming students will not take statewide assessment, WY-TOPP, this spring and no formal accountability determinations will be made for the 2019-20 school year,” says a March 20 press release from the Wyoming Department of Education. 
Schools across Wyoming were closed a week ago after recommendations from Gov. Mark Gordon, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, the Wyoming Department of Health, and President Donald Trump, in an effort to lessen the spread of the coronavirus. LaCroix announced on March 16 that the local schools would be closed until further notice.
Balow said in the March 20 release that the waiver removes the testing burdens from schools and “districts will be better able to continue to focus on their students’ immediate needs during this unprecedented time.” 
The availability of the waivers was announced early in the morning on March 20, and information on the waiver submission process was immediately sent to the states, according to the release. 
“U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her team at USEB responded to our waiver request within hours,” Balow said in the release. “The Wyoming Department of Education has already begun to evaluate the impacts of receiving the waiver and is working quickly and carefully to chart a path forward.” 
LaCroix said that this waiver really is a “blessing” right now because the last thing people need to worry about is standardized testing. 
“This is only one indicator for us but not the end all be all for us, and I don’t think it should be for parents. We still have our local assessments to know where students are at, and we know where they are daily,” LaCroix said. 
Of greater concern is the ACT, which is used for college admissions, LaCroix said, although most seniors graduating this year have already taken the test and will be OK moving into college this fall. 
As for where the local school district is at this moment, LaCroix said that the attendance waiver has been completed, so the days that are being missed by students until at least April 3 will not be counted against them. 
“Right now, we are putting together a plan as if we are not going to come back to school. We already have a plan for if we do,” LaCroix said. 
At this time, the future is very uncertain, he said, and he and others in the district are working on the issues on a “day-to-day basis.”
“It is one thing when we have a snow day, but this is a little bit different; we are going on week two and things are going to start taking different tolls on different people,” LaCroix said.