South Brunswick BOE Pushes For Standardized Testing Waiver

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — The South Brunswick Board of Education on Thursday said they would adopt a resolution, urging the state Department of Education and the governor to apply for a standardized testing waiver.

The U.S. Education Department recently said that all states must resume the annual testing of students that was waived in March 2020 amid the pandemic.

At the Board of Education meeting held Thursday, school superintendent Scott Feder said that the education community “was not too happy" with the idea of resuming testing.

“We do not believe the testing will be reliable or valid or meaningful,” said Feder.

The superintendent said if the school district were to perform the standardized testing it would have to stop all the work they are doing to keep schools safe and open.

With 80 percent South Brunswick students opting for virtual learning, conducting the standardized testing would require tremendous amount of technological resources, said Feder.

“The Department of Education has no plan right now. That means they will start to figure out now a plan as to what would this even look like,” he said.

Feder said that state superintendents, teachers’ associations, and various school boards are joining together to try and convince the Department of Education to fill out the waiver.

Gov. Phil Murphy had said that he would apply for a waiver from federal standardized testing mandates.

“We hope that he commits to that even after the Biden administration’s decree that they will be holding testing. We still believe there's a chance for the waiver and we would like to see that happening,” Feder said.

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