Hawaii requesting waiver from assessing speaking & listening in ELA assessments
News Release from Hawaii DoE, 22-Mar-2016
Hawaii is requesting a waiver from the US Dept. of Education to delay implementation of assessments of speaking and listening in English Language Arts assessments until the 2017-18 school year at the earliest.
The U.S. Department of Education (USED) is allowing states to request a waiver from assessing speaking and listening as part of its English language arts assessments. In 2011, the Hawaii Board of Education adopted the Hawaii Common Core Standards which include standards for speaking and listening. Federal law requires assessments include all adopted content standards; however, measuring the full range of speaking and listening in a large-scale summative assessment is not practical at this time.
As a result, Hawaii is seeking a waiver from this requirement pursuant to section 8401(b) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Specifically, Hawaii is requesting a limited waiver of section 1111(b)(3)(C)(ii) of the ESEA, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), so that the state's assessment system need not measure the full range of standards in the speaking and listening strand at this time.
The requested waiver would be effective through the 2016-17 school year. Hawaii will continue to develop best practices with respect to assessing speaking and listening on large-scale assessments, though it may request an extension of the waiver for subsequent years.
The public may submit input/feedback on this potential waiver to HSA/SAS/HIDOE@HIDOE@notes.k12.hi.us The feedback window is open until 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 6, 2016.
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