DELAWARE GENERAL ASSEMBLY LEGISLATIVE HALL DOVER, DELAWARE 19901

February 5, 2021

The Hon. Dr. Susan Bunting Delaware Department of Education 401 Federal St. Dover, DE 19901

RE: U.S. Department of Education ESEA/ESSA assessment waiver request

Dear Secretary Bunting:

It has recently come to our attention that the U.S. Department of Education has been accepting applications from State Education Agencies to waive certain requirements under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), with respect to student assessments. It also has been reported that U.S. DOE sent correspondence to all state chief school officers in recent weeks advising the extension of the waiver application period beyond Feb. 1, and that several of your colleagues in other states have already availed themselves of this opportunity to request a standardized testing waiver for this school year.

We strongly urge you to request an ESEA/ESSA assessment waiver for the state of Delaware as soon as practicable and without delay.

As you well know, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a tremendous toll on Delaware educators, administrators, school support personnel, students and their families. Although U.S. DOE may waive the testing requirement for accountability purposes, it is also our firm belief that the state should forego plans to implement the shortened Smarter Balanced Assessment as indicated by your department during the Jan. 26 meeting of the ESSA Advisory Committee. Any attempt to administer required standardized tests in the current school environment would create an extreme hardship for our school communities and jeopardize the fairness and equity of the testing structure itself. Even if our talented education professionals were able to create a testing plan that would comport with the health and welfare restrictions in place to control the spread of the virus, the resulting testing data would almost certainly be flawed for a variety of reasons.

We believe the time required for testing could be better spent by educators in continuing to provide instruction and screen students at the district and building level to inform summer intervention programs and prepare for instruction in the fall.

We know there is no guarantee that a request for a waiver would be granted, however we also know that U.S. DOE is more likely to facilitate waivers if a significant number of states make similar requests. If you wish to discuss this matter further, please don!t hesitate to contact us directly. Thank you for your kind attention.

Sincerely,

Kimberly Williams William Bush State Representative, 19th District State Representative, 29th District Chair, House Education Committee House Education Committee

Peter C. Schwartzkopf Valerie Longhurst State Representative, 14th District State Representative, 15th District Speaker of the House House Majority Leader

John L. Mitchell State Representative, 13th District Nnamdi Chukwuocha House Majority Whip State Representative, 1st District Vice-Chair, House Education Committee

Debra Heffernan State Representative, 6th District Michael F. Smith House Education Committee State Representative, 22nd District House Education Committee

Sherae’a Moore Edward S. Osienski State Representative, 8th District State Representative, 24th District House Education Committee House Education Committee

John A. Kowalko State Representative, 25th District Kevin S. Hensley House Education Committee State Representative, 9th District House Education Committee

Sean Matthews Eric Morrison State Representative, 10th District State Representative, 27th District House Education Committee House Education Committee

Michael Ramone State Representative, 21st District Sean M. Lynn House Education Committee State Representative, 31st District House Education Committee

Sherry Dorsey Walker Ruth Briggs King State Representative, 3rd District State Representative, 37th District House Education Committee

Gerald L. Brady State Representative, 4th District Laura V. Sturgeon State Senator, 4th District Chair, Senate Education Committee

Kendra Johnson State Representative, 5th District

S. Elizabeth Lockman State Senator, 3rd District Majority Whip Vice-Chair, Senate Education Committee Larry Lambert State Representative, 7th District

David P. Sokola State Senator, 8th District President Pro Tempore of the Senate Jeffrey N. Spiegelman Senate Education Committee State Representative, 11th District

Bryan Townsend Krista Griffith State Senator, 11th District State Representative, 12th District Majority Leader Senate Education Committee

Lyndon D. Yearick Franklin D. Cooke State Representative, 34th District State Representative, 16th District

Melissa Minor-Brown Ronald E. Gray State Representative, 17th District State Representative, 38th District

David Bentz Daniel B. Short State Representative, 18th District State Representative, 39th District House Minority Leader

Paul S. Baumbach State Representative, 23rd District Timothy D. Dukes State Representative House Minority Whip

Madinah Wilson-Anton State Representative, 26th District

Sarah McBride State Senator, 1st District William J. Carson State Representative, 28th District

Kyle Evans Gay Andria L. Bennett State Senator, 5th District State Representative, 32nd District

Spiros Mantzavinos Nicole Poore State Senator, 7th District State Senator, 12th District

Bruce C. Ennis John “Jack” Walsh State Senator, 14th District State Senator, 9th District

Stephanie L. Hansen Trey Paradee State Senator, 10th District State Senator, 17th District