The New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association send this email to members today:

Earlier today, the US Department of Education sent a letter stating that New Jersey’s proposal to replace this spring’s NJ-SLA exams with a series of alternative assessment tools is in compliance with federal requirements under ESSA

Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona, has held the line on the testing requirement required under the Every Student Succeeds Act. The US Department of Education, however, did accept waiver applications from the state departments of education, of which New Jersey was one. The NJDOE asked districts to provide data on assessments that were administered during a late winter-early spring timeframe, which turned out to be related to the waiver application.

Questions remain about the ACCESS and WIDA assessments for special education and English language learners, but we should have answers soon.

Full memo here.