Following the April 21 Board Meeting, the CUSD Board called for local assessments to be cancelled for all grade levels excluding juniors. While the California Science Test was canceled for juniors and seniors, juniors are still expected to complete the English Language Arts and Mathematics state tests.

In lieu of state testing, teachers must teach in line with Common Core Standards for ELA and mathematics as well as be able to provide results and scores that can be reported to students, parents, educators, schools, and the district as a whole.

This will likely mean that most teachers will continue on with their curriculum and use the final grades of students as the “local assessment”. For many English teachers, this was a welcomed decision seeing as the testing could take up important instructional time.

“With the continuous schedule changes, it just didn’t feel like a necessary use of class time, where we could use those two block days to focus on skills and curriculum,” said Jen Tatala, AP Literature and English IV teacher.

The purpose for this unorthodox approach to state testing was to quell the very legitimate worries of a few of school board members and a few members from the public who spoke at the board meeting ofthe increased difficulty administering a test for both in-person and online students presents.

“The Board’s action was in response to federal guidance allowing states to seek flexibility given that most students have yet to return to in-person instruction either part or full-time,” said Greg Merwin, Chief Academic Advisor representing the CUSD School Board.

However, State Testing for juniors regarding ELA and Mathematics was seen as more vital to the future of the student body. The belief of the majority of the board is that the results of those tests will allow the district to better know juniors’ understanding in these subjects.