MPS requests standardized test waiver amid pandemic

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee Public Schools thinks students should not have to take standardized tests this year. 

A news released from the MPS board president and vice president shows they're requesting to hold off on standardized tests. 

It's been submitted to state and federal authorities and didn't need board approval to do so.

With students back in Milwaukee classrooms, some for less than a week, attention has turned to all they've missed in the last year, including standardized tests.

“All of what’s going on right now has led a certain level of chaos to our students and their families and we do not think that testing that helps, in fact, it adds to the stress,” said MPS Board President Larry Miller.

MPS is joining the largest school districts in the state, unanimously requesting a waiver of the required administration of standardized testing during the pandemic.

“It goes to the Department of Public Instruction in Madison and they should be very sensitive to the situation. I would hope that they would be, but it also goes to the Department of Education in Washington,” said Miller.

Miller spoke to us ahead of Thursday night's board meeting, saying a baseline test in the fall would be better, because right now, some students are still in virtual learning.

“You can’t do it in a justified way. You can’t do it so it’s accurate and so it really doesn’t give you the kind of results that would be helpful for teaching and learning,” said Miller.

The vice president of the board says testing is important.

“Everybody in this country wants to be accountable in terms of education,” said Tony Baez, MPS board vice president.

That's why Tony Baez is proposing a work group to look at the data on testing.

“That work group that I’m proposing would look at the data in a more careful way, so it’s not just what districts are mandated to do because of funding and things like that, it is also what parents want, what the community wants, what teachers want,” said Baez.

Baez says parents and community members who'd like to take part should submit their name to a board member.