Washington state had one of the highest testing participation rates in the country this school year, topping 90%.
But since school districts got access to their data a few months ago, many educators have chosen to keep the data at an arm鈥檚 length 鈥 echoing the stance of the state鈥檚 superintendent, who said in January that his agency wouldn鈥檛 spend much energy on the scores. The assessments this year were shorter and taken in the fall to test students on the previous year鈥檚 learning, instead of the typical spring timeline. Washington was one of only a handful of states delay the testing.
The fall test-score data 鈥渄oes not provide a comprehensive picture of where our students are at this point in time, said Catherine Carbone Rogers, a spokesperson for the Highline School District. 鈥淚t tested students on the previous year鈥檚 grade level content, which was taught during a monumentally disruptive year.鈥 Carbone Rogers said the spring test scores 鈥渨ill test learning in the current year, giving us much more reliable data on student learning, when put alongside聟other classroom data.鈥
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