MILWAUKEE — The leadership of the Milwaukee Public Schools Board is in support of granting a waiver for standardized testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Larry Miller and Vice President Tony Báez said in a statement Wednesday that they "strongly urge" state and federal officials to offer a waiver of the required standardized testing during the pandemic.
"We vehemently oppose testing for the sake of testing," Miller said in the statement. "Administering standardized tests during the pandemic does not, will not promote meaningful teaching and learning and will only become a shaming tool."
They argue that it is difficult to administer the tests to students who are learning remotely. And the time it takes to do so is further taken away from in-person instruction, they say.
"We believe that the schools in Wisconsin should be granted the same flexibilities on standardized testing as other school districts across the nation, such as Washington, D.C.," said Báez.
Read their statement below:
