Two-Minute Take: Student Testing to Resume This Spring

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Learn more about Anne Wicks.
Anne Wicks
Anne Wicks
Don Evans Family Managing Director, Opportunity and Democracy
George W. Bush Institute

The U.S. Department of Education has announced that states must resume annual student testing this spring. Anne Wicks, Bush Institute Ann Kimball Johnson Education Reform Initiative Director, gives her Two-Minute Take on the importance of this decision.

The U.S. Department of Education has announced that states must resume annual student testing this spring. Reliable, valid, and comparable exams will give policymakers the disaggregated data they need to understand and then address the disproportionate academic fallout from the pandemic, as a recent Bush Institute series revealed. Parents and caregivers deserve this data as well to help them advocate for their students. To be successful, school district leaders, and federal and state policymakers will need to maximize the power of tests to ensure children are being supported. Read recent policy recommendations on how they can do this.