On Thursday Dec. 17, the Oklahoma State Board of Education suspended the state’s School Report Cards grades for the 2020-2021 school year.

Every year, the Oklahoma State Report Cards grade all public schools based on the results of state testing as well as five other criteria including academic growth, chronic absenteeism, graduation rates, postsecondary opportunities and English language proficiency.

With the COVID-19 pandemic causing school to have to shut down prematurely last year, the ability to collect information has been impeded. Other than state testing, academic growth contributes the second most points toward a school’s overall grade, itself based on student improvement from a previous year’s English and math assessments, tests that weren’t administered last year.

“The reality of 2020 impedes our ability to provide the public with information that can be used to compare schools’ progress year over year,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister. “We are committed to providing schools and the public with actionable, meaningful and transparent data- and that relies on credible trend data that can be used to make valid inferences about school quality and performance.”

Year-end federally required tests will still continue in the spring, including English language arts, math and science for grades 3-8, as well as the ACT or SAT for high school juniors. The Board of Education also approved giving districts the opportunity to request a waiver to the qualitative evaluation portion of the Teacher and Leader Effectiveness system (TLE). The professional learning requirement of TLE remains in place.

“COVID-19 has impacted accountability on many levels. Right now, districts are finding it challenging to complete the observations and evaluations,” said Hofmeister. “This optional waiver will relieve pressure on the districts as they navigate this pandemic and keep their focus on supporting students.”