In light of today’s announcement of Miguel Cardona to fulfill the Secretary of Education post in President-Elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet, we at rsEdge, Inc. would like to share some perspective about the challenges parents have been facing while managing remote learning in their households.
Given Cardona’s stated priorities related to improving equitable access to education and working towards a safe return to in-person learning, we believe he will work effectively from within the Biden Administration to develop a plan that will help U.S. schools improve their ability to teach in any environment, with an approach that will be well-coordinated with a federal pandemic response strategy.
Parents’ woes have been visible within the media this past year – as the 2019-2020 school year wound down last spring, and then again as schools re-opened this fall. rsEdge conducted a series of video interviews earlier this month with 25 parents of school-age children across the U.S., who attend public schools either remote full-time or in a hybrid of remote and in-classroom learning. The objective of these interviews was to gain a sense of how they are coping and feeling, as they navigate the pluses and minuses of today’s remote learning environments.
The Question
Participants were asked to create a video with their answer to the following questions related to assessment:
“What testing has your school conducted to check on your child’s learning progress?” Do you feel like your child is being adequately assessed this year? Why or why not?
If your school hasn’t done assessments so far this year, how do you feel about that? Do you feel confident your child is learning on pace relative to their grade level?
The Response
Parents who were aware of assessments that had taken place – and felt that their children’s teachers were doing a good job of keeping up with their students’ progress – expressed confidence and seemed mostly satisfied.
My son’s school has tested his reading level using a PALS test and they’ve also tested his math proficiency. I feel that they are doing a great job with
Virginia Parent of a child in PreK-1st grade
assessing where he is as far as his math and his literacy, so I have no issues with that. I hope that that does continue throughout the rest of the year, in
the Spring and again in the Fall, because I feel it is very important that we know the benchmark of where my son is in any areas that may need improvement in the future.
On the flip side, parents who hadn’t witnessed any assessments ranged from concerned to frustrated and angry, particularly if they felt their child was falling behind.
Our school system has not done any testing whatsoever to check on my
New Jersey Parent of 3 in grades 4-5, 6-8, and 9-12
children’s learning process since this virtual environment has started. I
don’t think they’re being adequately assessed. I worry that when finally
they do go back to school, probably next year, kids will be very far behind.
[The schools] are not doing any assessments at all, none. They will be doing those as soon as they go back to school, but right now they’re not doing any of those. I don’t feel like my child is being pushed or tested enough, or having the right assessments done because I feel like they are lagging behind and everything’s behind with the teachers and the curriculum, and I feel like my child’s progress is held back because of that, because the teachers aren’t pushing hard enough. I don’t feel that they’ve done enough testing and it’s frustrating, it makes me feel angry and upset. I don’t feel that my child is keeping up with the pace because of that.
Washington Parent of children in 6-8th, 9-12 grades
Some simply didn’t seem to have enough knowledge or understanding of what assessments were being done and how that information was being applied to help their child.
I feel they could do some testing to see how the progress is going. If they’re doing it, they’re not keeping us up to date. I would like to know this. I feel she could do okay, even with remote learning, if they were actually to really keep up on her. Maybe the system could email me automatically if something’s wrong.
Utah Parent of child in 9-12th grade
Our Opinion
All in all, it appears that – as controversial as the topic of standardized testing can be – it does serve an important purpose in measuring and tracking student progress and growth, particularly when done well and results are clearly communicated. Given how much more heavily involved parents have to be in ensuring the delivery of education to their child in today’s environment, perhaps the benefits of testing are becoming clearer to both parents and educators.
At rsEdge, we will be watching the development of public education under the new administration. We support Cardona’s life mission to improve how public schools deliver quality education equitably. Providing students with growth opportunities and effectively assessing their depth of knowledge are key steps towards achieving this goal.
To hear more comments made directly by parents, watch this video!