In Case You Missed It – April 26, 2021

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the new Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

LEARNING LOSS vs COVID TRAUMA

The coronavirus pandemmic has had an impact on school children...academically, socially, and emotionally. Do we need to spend millions of dollars nation-wide for testing? Proponents of testing say that we need to know where the students are academically and provide remediation and academic support. But do tests actually tell us where students are academically or do they simply provide information on socio-economic levels?

Testing has always had limited value. Not everything that we value in education can be tested. Perhaps we should take this opportunity to help students heal from the trauma of COVID-19 before we subject them to tests that will just confirm that wealthy students get higher test scores than students who live in poverty.

Why learning isn’t the most important thing kids lost during the pandemic

From the Answer Sheet

Whatever we do when we return will be historic by definition. If all we come up with is passing out diagnostic tests to quantify learning loss and then track kids into groups for remediation, it will be a terrible failure of imagination.

“You know what’s going to happen to the kids who couldn’t get online last year because they had to support their families or because they were homeless when the sorting happens, right?” asks Berger. “They’re going to be sorted in a way that will only exacerbate the equity issues.”

Trailing down the backside of a steep mountain at long last, and picking up speed as we head into a promising new year, we seem to have our eyes fixed on the wrong problem entirely...

Outrage Continues as Standardized Testing Moves Forward in this COVID-19 School Year

From Jan Resseger

Standardized testing—required this school year by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona’s U.S. Department of Education despite the disruption of COVID-19—is now happening in many public schools across the United States. But even as the tests are being administered, the anger and protests against this expensive, time consuming, and, many believe, harmful routine are not abating.

Last week, the Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss reported: “The Biden administration is facing growing backlash from state education chiefs, Republican senators, teachers unions and others who say that its insistence that schools give standardized tests to students this year is unfair, and that it is being inconsistent in how it awards testing flexibility to states. Michigan State Superintendent Michael Rice has slammed the U.S. Education Department for its ‘indefensible’ logic in rejecting the state’s request for a testing waiver while granting one to the Washington, D.C., school system—the only waiver that has been given. Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen, whose state was also denied a waiver, said testing this year ‘isn’t going to show any data that is going to be meaningful for learning moving forward… The controversy represents the newest chapter in a long-running national debate about the value of high-stakes standardized tests. Since 2002, the federal government has mandated schools give most students ELA and math standardized tests every year for the purposes of holding schools accountable for student progress. The scores are also used to rank schools, evaluate teachers, make grade promotion decisions and other purposes.”

TESTS IN FWCS

FWCS adjusts schedules for tests

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Fort Wayne Community Schools needs middle school students to ditch their routines this week.

Students attending on a blended schedule will learn virtually Monday through Friday, and the remote students will attend in person.

The swap is because of ILEARN.

Students in grades three through eight are required to take the state's standardized test in person.

QUESTIONING MASK MANDATES IN NACS AND EACS

Two local school boards have had to deal with parents arguing against the Governor's mask mandate for K-12 schools.

NACS panel: Masks safe for kids

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Dr. Matthew Sutter, the Allen County health commissioner, said schools are an ideal place to spread COVID-19, which makes adherence to mitigation strategies incredibly important.

“Masks are inexpensive, they're generally well tolerated, and it's worked,” Sutter said...

Board members, particularly President Kent Somers and Steve Bartkus, pressed panelists about potential negative effects – both mentally and physically – of forcing students to wear masks for hours a day.

Evidence does not show masks cause mental health declines, panelists said.

Rather, they said, students are affected by being taken away from their social circles, such as sports and school. Parents' anxieties and home situations are other contributing factors, they said.

“I think we might be a little cavalier in thinking masks are safe,” Somers said, questioning whether there are health trade-offs to wearing masks. “Isn't there some real risks to the kids?”

No, panelists said. Masks can be safely worn.

Mask debate ignites EACS school board meeting as many voiced concerns

From WANE.com

To masks or not to masks? That was the debate at the East Allen County School Board meeting Tuesday night where teachers, parents, students and school administrators voiced their concerns over whether or not to let student unmask while at school.

At times tensions were high and after more than an hour of discussion, the rooms were still spilt.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions there were only so many seats available in the board room. This meant parents, students and other member of the public who wished to speak were asked to wait in the lobby and in other locations of the administration building.

Some parents say that the school should allow students to choose whether or not to wear a mask. They say they are not against teachers or the school system but they are worried about their student’s mental health.

However, one teacher who spoke asked the board to keep the masks as a safety precaution until the end of the school year. To that some of the parents boo-ed him.

EACS USES FEDERAL DOLLARS FOR STIPENDS

EACS doesn't wait on stipends

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The East Allen County Schools board Tuesday didn't want to wait two weeks to endorse Superintendent Marilyn Hissong's request to spend federal coronavirus relief dollars on $500 and $1,000 stipends for employees.

“OK, let's just do this tonight,” board President Todd Buckmaster said when board members embraced Gayle Etzler's suggestion to act immediately on what was presented as a discussion-only item.

Collectively, employees will get about $1,193,500, with individual awards based on part-time and full-time status. Those employed May 14 are eligible.

“We wanted to do this for our staff,” Hissong said. “It took everyone to make this happen this year.”

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both, are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/

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Vic’s Statehouse Notes #356 – looming threats and flaws

From Indiana Coalition for Public Education's Vic Smith...

Dear Friends,

With only three days left in this General Assembly session, a dangerous threat to our state remains to be fixed. Education Scholarship Accounts are still in the budget bill, and the bill language does not protect Indiana from extremists, from criminals or from the sudden elimination of all standards and accountability.

Will you send messages today and tomorrow to your legislators and to party leaders who are deciding what will go into the budget about these looming threats and flaws that could be fixed with last minute additions to the bill language?

Fix the Flaws!

What are the glaring problems that have still not been fixed in the current budget bill language on Educational Scholarship Accounts?

Threats include no standards for ESA parent grants, no protection against extremist curriculum, and no background checks for where tax payer dollars will go.

Click here to read the rest and share. You can find your state legislators by clicking here.

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In Case You Missed It – April 19, 2021

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

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TO OUR READERS

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INDIANA: MARCHING TOWARDS PRIVATIZATION

The Indiana General Assembly under the Republican supermajority continues its inexorable move towards the total privatization of public education.

Indiana poised to open school vouchers to families earning over $100,000

From Chalkbeat*

Nearly half of all Indiana families already meet the income criteria to be eligible for the program. Both the House and Senate budget proposals would open voucher access even further, in some cases to families earning over $100,000 per year for a family of four.

The plans would also eliminate partial vouchers, granting even middle-income families full scholarships — which average more than $5,800 per student.

For Republican politicians, who dominate state government in Indiana, the all-but-certain expansion represents a big win in advancing their free-market vision, where parents choose what is best for their child. At the same time, the legislature plans to broaden school choice, by creating education savings accounts that would provide stipends to pay for schooling and therapies for children with special needs.

A decade after Indiana created vouchers, the program served nearly 37,000 students at a price tag of close to $173 million last year. Enrollment plateaued in recent years, and widening eligibility for vouchers could spur a surge in participation.

Public funding for private education remains deeply polarizing. While Indiana’s voucher program initially targeted students from low-income families, the Republican expansion plans would offer generous aid to middle-income families. That amounts to a subsidy for affluent families, including some who likely would have enrolled their children in private schools without aid.

Senate approves 2-year budget

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

The most strident speech against the budget came from longtime Republican Evansville Sen. Vaneta Becker. She called out the lack of effort on increasing teacher pay and the growing cost of K-12 school choice programs.

Becker said the state is losing teachers right and left because salaries are lagging the nation but, "I know most people in here don't care about that."

She also noted that an expansion of the state voucher program now makes a family of four making up to 95,000 a year eligible for a state-paid private school education. She compared that to the income limits on other state assistance programs, including 56,000 for a pregnant woman in a family of four.

"Ninety-five thousand dollars is nowhere near low-income," Becker said.

The voucher program started as a small 15 million investment and now has spent more than 1 billion over a decade, she said.

SOME NACS PARENTS DOUBT THE SCIENCE

"The good thing about science is that it's true whether you believe it or not." -- Neil DeGrasse Tyson

Mask discussion goes on at NACS

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

One parent supporting mask choice said he wants NACS to have a plan. He described mask-wearing at school as an experiment, and claimed masks don't protect anybody, despite health officials saying otherwise.

"This isn't based on science," the parent said, demanding local data. "It's an overreaction."

Dr. Matthew Sutter, Allen County health commissioner, reiterated in emailed statements to The Journal Gazette last week that precautionary measures : including mask-wearing, social distancing, frequent hand-washing and avoiding large crowds : slow the spread of COVID-19.

NACS Superintendent Chris Himsel two weeks ago credited mask-wearing and other mitigation strategies for having fewer than 10 district cases linked to in-school transmission despite having more than 400 student and employee infections.

Those supporting the mask mandate included a teacher with a high-risk pregnancy. She said dropping the requirement would jeopardize her and her child's health.

A pediatrician stressed COVID-19 hasn't disappeared, and its effects on children can be serious, including heart failure.

Outside school called riskier for kids than class

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Dr. Matthew Sutter, the county health commissioner, reiterated in emailed statements last week that precautionary measures – including mask-wearing, social distancing, frequent handwashing and avoiding large crowds – slow the spread of COVID-19.

“If people choose to let their guard down, we could still see ongoing transmission of this deadly virus,” Sutter said. “And while children are not likely to die from COVID-19, we know they can spread it – particularly in their household, which may include individuals who are more at-risk for hospitalization and death.”

NACS Superintendent Chris Himsel credited mask-wearing and other mitigation strategies for having fewer than 10 district cases linked to in-school transmission despite having more than 400 student and employee infections.

child PNG Designed By 588ku from Pngtree.com

TESTING OR NO TESTING? US EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SAYS "YES"

Every teacher in the county will tell you that students who have had a chaotic school year -- sometimes hybrid, sometimes in class, sometimes at home -- will not score well on standardized tests given this year.

Every teacher in the country knows that the students who need the most help -- those who have special learning needs and those in poverty -- will not score well on standardized tests given this year.

The commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics has agreed to cancel the NAEP tests -- the Nation's Report Card -- for this year because of the pandemic. The commissioner, James Woodworth, said,

“[Due to the pandemic,] The change in operations and lack of access to students to be assessed means that NAEP will not be able to produce estimates of what students know and can do that would be comparable to either past or future national or state estimates.”

Do we really need state testing to tell us what we already know?

Cardona’s Flexibility on Standardized Testing Creates Confusion and Rancor

From Jan Resseger

After a chaotic schoolyear including remote learning and sometimes complicated hybrid schedules of in-person and remote learning, students are returning to full-time school to face the annual standardized tests. These are the tests that Congress requires under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the tests first required by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). They are the foundation of a two-decade-old scheme to hold schools accountable. Betsy DeVos cancelled required standardized testing last spring after schools shut down as the pandemic struck the Unites States.

The U.S. Department of Education announced in late February, before Education Secretary Miguel Cardona was even confirmed, that it is requiring standardized testing this spring. There is a whole lot of confusion between the federal government and the states right now because the federal guidance about testing this year features “flexibility.”

Here is some of the letter, dated February 22, 2021, from acting assistant secretary of education, Ian Rosenblum, a letter which informed states they must test students this year...

Why Standardized Tests Won’t Measure What Students Learned During The Pandemic

From Peter Greene in Forbes

Some supporters of testing have leaned hard on marketing that emphasizes the dreaded Learning Loss, with every ed tech company on the block promising a solution. But while some test advocacy seems to be the result of disaster capitalism in search of an opportunity, many folks supporting the administration are doing so out of deep concern for educational equity in this country, while others believe that schools can only find their way back from the pandemic with hard data.

The argument in favor of collecting data is a compelling one. It is completely understandable that education leaders and policymakers and even editorial kibbitzers would like to have a clear, data-rich description of where students across the country are right now. There’s just one problem.

They can’t have it.

Yong Zhao and William McDiarmid: Time to Rethink Standardized Testing

From Diane Ravitch

COVID-19 has disrupted schooling in its traditional sense. It has also disrupted other school related activities such as state standardized testing. As schools return to “normal” thanks to vaccination, many states are already pushing to resume standardized testing as part of the “normal” operations of formal education and to assess the so-called “learning loss” (Zhao, 2021). Resuming standardized testing is perhaps one of the worst things that can happen to children, especially after more than a year of social isolation and unprecedented disruption.

REFORM

John Thompson: How Corporate Reform Devastated My School

From Diane Ravitch

In 2006, our John Marshall High School was enduring the worst of the five months-long, extreme meltdowns I witnessed in 18 years with the Oklahoma City Public Schools. Many days, I’d see the anarchy and the blood-splattered halls, and ask if I was dreaming. One thing that kept me sane was the discovery of education blogs, above all Deborah Meier’s and Diane Ravitch’s conversations in Bridging Differences. In a prescient example of the wisdom which grew out of their “animated conversation,” they agreed:

That a central, abiding function of public education is to educate the citizens who will preserve the essential balances of power that democracy requires, as well as to support a sufficient level of social and economic equality, without which democracy cannot long be sustained. We agreed that the ends of education–its purposes, and the trade-offs that real life requires–must be openly debated and continuously re-examined.

*Note: Financial sponsors of Chalkbeat include pro-privatization foundations and individuals such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, EdChoice, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both, are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/

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In Case You Missed It – April 12, 2021

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

VOUCHER EXPANSION IN INDIANA

New Indiana budget proposal scales back private school voucher expansion

The Indiana Senate scaled back the increase in Indiana's voucher program proposed by the House of Representatives. Public school advocates and more than 170 school boards spoke out against the massive increase that the House proposed.

From Chalkbeat*

After a chorus of opposition from public school districts and advocates, Indiana Senate Republicans significantly scaled back an expansion of the state’s private school voucher program under their budget proposal Thursday.

The Senate plan would not extend private school vouchers to as many middle-class families as suggested in the House budget proposal and other legislation discussed this session. It also would dramatically curtail a proposal for education savings accounts, which would give stipends to parents of children with special needs who do not attend public schools.

The Senate would nonetheless make the state voucher program, which currently serves more than 36,000 students, more generous than it is currently. Students from a family of four earning nearly $110,000 per year could be eligible for vouchers under the Senate plan. It would raise the eligibility for new students to 200% of the subsidized meal income qualifications and 225% for returning students and those receiving special education, instead of the House’s proposed cap of 300%.

No Pause in Indiana's Push for Privatization

The Senate might have scaled back the House's massive gift to privatization, but an expansion of vouchers is still an expansion of vouchers.

From Live Long and Prosper

The bill now goes to a conference committee where House members will try to put back what the Senate took out. Speaker of the House Todd Huston, whose campaign contributions include $35,000 from Betsy DeVos's Hoosiers for Quality Education (see also here), said that the house will "be negotiating very aggressively" to get back what was taken out so they can satisfy their lust for privatization.

One might even think that the plan all along was for the House to propose an extreme expansion of vouchers, then have the Senate back off a bit to pacify public school advocates (and more than 170 school boards around the state), and settle on a more "modest" increase in voucher money and an ESA plan.

It's still an increase in Indiana's ever increasing move towards total privatization.

FIGHTING VOUCHERS

Scholars show how to challenge voucher discrimination

Steve Hinnefeld explains one possible way to fight against vouchers.

From School Matters

...supporters promote vouchers to expand opportunities for students and families. But, as the programs expand, state officials often enable them to deny those benefits to entire groups of students.

“Vouchers were sold as program that all could benefit from, but the anti-LGBT provisions give the lie to that statement,” Green said.

Charters vs. Vouchers

What's worse, Vouchers or Charters? Both have had their part to play in harming America's public schools, but one has more potential to destroy them altogether. Do you know which one it is? Peter Greene casts his vote.

From Curmudgucation

I have tried (I love a good thought experiment), but I cannot imagine a world with a voucher system that is not really a pay-your-own-way, two or three tier system (with the vestiges of public education occupying the lowest tier). Charters have adopted and tacked on free market ideology as a tool and a desired outcome, but vouchers cannot be separated from it, because the whole concept of vouchers is about replacing shared societal responsibility for maintaining a common good with opportunities for folks to make a buck. At the same time, the wealthy will still get the education they want for their children, while being freed of any requirement to help foot the bill for educating Those Peoples' Children. And I am unable to imagine--nor have I seen anyone propose--a voucher system that works otherwise.

LOCAL FORT WAYNE EDUCATION

PFW allowing student teachers to substitute for local school systems

Purdue University in West Lafayette modified its policy and now allows student teachers to get paid for substituting. Purdue Fort Wayne (PFW), follows suit.

From Fort Wayne's NBC

Back in March, Purdue modified its policy regarding student teachers working as paid substitutes.

“We knew our school partners were struggling with needing subs, so when we heard about Purdue’s move, we wanted to do the same. Student teachers pay full tuition for the experience of working full-time under the guidance of a mentor teacher – they do not get paid. I love that this provides an opportunity for our students to both help their schools and make a financially challenging semester a little easier.”

Isabel Nuñez, director of Purdue Fort Wayne’s School of Education

NACS teachers support masks: Union backs precautions as others voice opposition

The teachers of Northwest Allen County Schools take a stand on wearing masks.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

As parents lobby the Northwest Allen County Schools board to relax masking rules, teachers are speaking up in support of mask-wearing and other coronavirus precautions.

Such protocols make in-person instruction possible during the pandemic, protecting students from the greatest threat to their social and emotional health – isolation from classmates and teachers, the Northwest Allen County Education Association said in a statement.

“To safely achieve the 'in-person' structure, precautionary measures such as the wearing of masks and social distancing must be implemented and respected,” the union said. “These precautionary measures allow educators to effectively support the academic success and emotional health of the thousands of NACS students and families in our community.”

FROM DIANE RAVITCH

My Broken Heart

NPE President, Diane Ravitch, told her readers about her upcoming heart surgery.

From Diane Ravitch

I was born in 1938. I’m in pretty good health, considering my age. But one of the valves in my heart has a leak. It must be repaired. On April 8, I am having open heart surgery. The surgeon will break open my breastbone to reach my heart, then wire it back together. He assures me I will be fine, but fatigued, when it’s over.

I have tried to take it in stride, but it’s hard not to find it scary. Terrifying, actually.

Karen Francisco: Why I Fight to Save Public Schools

While she's recovering from heart surgery, Diane Ravitch asked others to write blog posts for her. In this piece, Karen Francisco, editorial editor of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**, chronicles her journey towards public school advocacy.

From Diane Ravitch

I wish I could say Indiana has seen some success in fighting off the privatization monster, but that’s far from the truth. More than $1 billion has now flowed to private and parochial schools through the voucher program, with no accountability. A scandal involving a virtual charter school cost taxpayers at least $85 million, with seemingly no concern from lawmakers or taxpayers. In the current legislative session, the Republican supermajority is throwing everything at school choice: income limits that make vouchers available to wealthy families, ESAs, full funding for online-only schools and more.

*Note: Financial sponsors of Chalkbeat include pro-privatization foundations and individuals such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, EdChoice, Gates Family Foundation, The Walton Family Foundation, and others.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both, are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/

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In Case You Missed It – April 5, 2021

Here are links to last week's articles receiving the most attention on NEIFPE's social media accounts. Keep up with what's going on, what's being discussed, and what's happening with public education.

Be sure to enter your email address in the Follow Us By Email box in the right-hand column to be informed when our blog posts are published.

MASK OBJECTION FROM NACS PARENTS

NACS parents urge board to unmask students

The Indiana state-wide mask mandate ends on April 6 when it becomes an "advisory." However, State office buildings and K-12 schools are still requiring masks. A group of parents at Northwest Allen County Schools are protesting, claiming that students don't need masks.

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Dozens of unmasked people filed into a Northwest Allen County school Monday, calling on district leaders to let their children and grandchildren do the same.

The showing at Perry Hill Elementary School represented a fraction of the 500 people united behind a movement dubbed Unmask NACS Students Now, parent Travis Striggle told the school board and district administration.

The audience, which briefly booed Superintendent Chris Himsel, seemed receptive to board President Kent Somers' idea of holding a public work session, likely in April, to address the district's coronavirus policies.

NACS won't back off using masks in schools

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Doctors still say wearing masks can stop the spread of the coronavirus, despite a throng of parents calling on Northwest Allen County Schools to drop its mandate.

Superintendent Chris Himsel remained steadfast to the mitigation strategy during Monday's school board meeting, and his district's largest neighbor is preparing a communication strategy reiterating the need to wear masks.

Holcomb disputes NACS parents on COVID

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Gov. Eric Holcomb said Wednesday he couldn't disagree more with the Northwest Allen County Schools parent who claimed the coronavirus is not a killer.

"This is a mass killer," Holcomb said during his weekly COVID-19 briefing. "There are over 6,000 folks that have lost their life to this virus just in our long-term care centers and twice that when you total 'em up."

...Dozens of unmasked adults attended a NACS board meeting Monday, calling on leaders to drop the mask mandate. They spoke for about an hour, relaying stories of children shamed and disciplined for not wearing masks properly and other alleged hardships, including skin irritations, the loss of facial communication and enabling shy children to hide.

Per Holcomb's order, the statewide mask mandate becomes an advisory Tuesday except for state government buildings and K-12 schools.

TEACHERS SPEAK OUT AGAINST VOUCHERS

Huntington teachers hit vouchers

Republican legislatures around the country are pushing privatization of public education. Indiana already has a wide ranging voucher program, but has considered several bills this session which increase funding for private and parochial schools.

From The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

Huntington County public school teachers didn't use a stamp or the internet to send a message Monday to state lawmakers about proposals that would divert more money from their classrooms and into private schools.

Instead, they framed their opposition to proposed voucher expansion and new Education Scholarship Accounts with their signatures on a full-page ad in The Journal Gazette.

The Huntington Classroom Teachers' Association titled its petition "Halt the Bait & Switch."

"Legislators have told school districts that they want to provide them with certainty, and those same legislators say they understand schools have had to adapt quickly to ensure continued student learning in the face of an unprecedented public health crisis," the union said. "But that is all lip-service when crucial funding is being diverted away from the 93% of Indiana's students that attend traditional public schools."

BEVERLY CLEARY, 1916-2021

Beverly Cleary, Age 104

Children's author Beverly Cleary died at age 104 last week.

From Live Long and Prosper

Ramona was sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, but never a parody. The characteristics that made Ramona so appealing to my students were the same characteristics that made her seem real. Even though the stories were made up, they were never outside the possibility of what could happen to them. Every child could relate to feelings of embarrassment when they made a mistake. Every child understands the anger at being patronized. Ramona expressed those feelings and made them acceptable.

FWCS SUPERINTENDENT ANSWERS QUESTIONS

Five Questions for Mark Daniel

FWCS Superintendent, Mark Daniel, answers questions about the district.

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette**

1. You joined dozens of other Indiana superintendents in calling for suspension of ILEARN, the state's standardized test, this spring. Why?

As explained in our superintendent letter, the federal government is accepting state waivers in regard to the administration of state assessments like ILEARN because of the pandemic. Our hope was for Indiana state leaders to request a waiver eliminating ILEARN for this spring and replacing it with other assessments we currently give to our students. It is my understanding a waiver was requested in regard to the 95% completion rate rule and extended dates of administrating ILEARN.

This will assist us as FWCS has over 30% of its students attending school virtually, and the test must be given to students in person in our schools. Many parents are concerned and question if they will return their child(ren) to school in person to accommodate the testing protocol.

**Note: The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has changed its online access and is now behind a paywall. Digital access, home delivery, or both, are available with a subscription. Staying informed is important, and one way to do that is to support your local newspaper. For subscription information go to fortwayne.com/subscriptions/

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