ESSA Cheat Sheet: What’s in the New Testing Regulations?

Following the period of “negotiated rulemaking,” school districts, state chiefs, advocates, and the U.S. Department of Education now have a better idea of how testing will work under the reauthorized Every Student Succeeds Act.

The “cheat sheet” to the new testing regulations, from Education Week, is available online at:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/04/every_student_succeeds_act_exp.html

The cheat sheet sums up the new testing regulations in easy-to-read bullet points, organized into the following sections:

• How Testing Is Supposed to Work in General
• Computer-Adaptive Tests
•  Locally Selected, Nationally Recognized High School Tests
• Advanced Math Test Exception
• Testing Students in Special Education
• Testing for English-Language Learners

The article ends with the question, “Are these regs finished?” The answer? According to Education Week, “Not exactly. They are technically tentative, but…they will still need to be published in the Federal Register and commented on. They can still be tweaked before they are final.”