Education Week - February 10, 2021 - 10

Miguel Cardona Pressed by Lawmakers on Tests,
Reopening Schools, and Transgender Students
Nominee for education secretary
Miguel Cardona vowed at his Senate
confirmation hearing Feb. 3 to help
schools reopen safely and ensure
educators and students have the support they need during the COVID-19
pandemic. But Cardona did not take a
firm position on the role of standardized tests during the pandemic, and
in general tried to stake out positions
on controversial issues such as the
rights of transgender students without
seeming combative.
President Joe Biden's pick to lead
the U.S. Department of Education
told members of the Senate education committee that future pandemic
relief funding from Congress must
focus on helping students recover
from COVID-19 academically and
in other ways. Cardona, currently the
Connecticut commissioner of education, championed the importance
of public schools schools without
criticizing charter schools or private
school choice.
And in response to questions from
several Republican senators who
questioned the fairness of transgender female students competing in
girls' athletic contests, Cardona insisted that schools had an obligation
to provide transgender students the
chance to participate in activities like
sports.
" My passion is really to ensure quality schools, period, " Cardona said,
highlighting his own experience working in public schools. " I'm a strong
proponent of making sure all schools
are quality schools. Most parents want
to send their children to their neighborhood school. "
He told lawmakers in Spanish,
" In unity there is strength. " And he
pledged to senators, " We will work to
reopen schools safely. "
Cardona's confirmation hearing
lacked the tension or open hostility
that characterized the 2017 confirmation hearing of his predecessor,
former education secretary Betsy
DeVos; the top Republican senator
on the committee, Sen. Richard Burr
of North Carolina, called Cardona
" eminently qualified " and indicated
that he was open to voting to confirm
Cardona. Democrats control the Senate through Vice President Kamala
Harris' tie-breaking vote, and Sen.
Patty Murray, D-Wash., assumed
her role as the new Senate education
committee chair Wednesday.
Cardona previously worked as a
classroom teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent. He became
Connecticut's education commissioner in 2019.
Biden announced Cardona as his
nominee in December, at a time
of unprecedented disruption for
schools. If confirmed by the Senate, Cardona will have his hands full
fulfilling the Biden administration's

Susan Walsh/AP

By Andrew Ujifusa

pledge to provide K-12 schools with
clear technical guidance about safely
reopening, and to collect and disseminate data about the impact of
COVID-19 on schools and students.
The question of standardized tests
looms large

Perhaps the most immediate question Cardona will face is whether to
grant waivers to states that don't want
to give students federally mandated
tests this spring, given the challenges
many schools face. That question has
divided the education community,
with teachers' unions opposing the
idea, but other groups saying they're
needed to help identify students who
need more support and what their
needs are.
In response to a question from Burr
in which the senator questioned the
value of standardized testing during
the pandemic, Cardona didn't take a
firm stance on whether states should
give them and exactly how they
should be used. He said that assessments can help get more resources to
students in need, but also said states
should have input into how they are
used during the pandemic.
" I don't think we need to be bringing students [into schools] just to
test them on a standardized test. I
don't think that makes any sense, "
Cardona told Burr. However, he
added that, " If we don't assess where
our students are and their level of
performance, it's going to be difficult for us to provide some targeted
support. "
States including Michigan and
New York don't want to administer the exams, while states such as
Arkansas and Texas have said they
plan to give them. Cardona did not
specify that tests mandated by the
Every Student Succeeds Act are the

10 | EDUCATION WEEK | February 10, 2021 | www.edweek.org

only assessments that could provide
helpful information.
Cardona will also have to decide
whether to waive requirements under
ESSA that states must use scores from
those tests to rate schools and districts
and require interventions to help
struggling students.
Cardona signaled an openness to
waiving such mandates. He told Burr
that when it comes to how any test
scores are used, states should have
significant input over " whether those
assessments should be tied into any
accountability as well. "
Last year as Connecticut's education commissioner, Cardona told
schools that the state planned to administer the tests required by ESSA,
citing their importance to identifying
and addressing the needs of disadvantaged students.
Hot topics: COVID-19 funding and
reopening schools

While the Education Department
does not exercise a great deal of
control over local schools' reopening decisions, Cardona highlighted
his own experience helping many
Connecticut schools resume inperson learning during this school
year, telling Murray that he and
other state education leaders " were
open and transparent with what we
knew. "
More broadly, Cardona said there
are schools throughout the country that have been " able to reopen
safely and do so while following
mitigation strategies. " He stressed
the importance of students being in
classrooms, even though, he noted,
" Our students have shown us a level
of resilience that I don't think we've
ever seen in history before. "
In response to a question from
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., about

Education Secretary
nominee Miguel Cardona
testifies before the Senate
Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions committee
during his confirmation
hearing Feb. 3, 2021.

We're going to
need more
counselors in our
schools. We're
going to need to
make sure we
have summer
programming.
We're going to
need to make
sure we have
extended day.
MIGUEL CARDONA
Education Secretary nominee

the " secret potion " he used in Connecticut for reopening schools, for
example, Cardona cited the importance of issuing clear guidance to
local education leaders, as well as
forming a " very clear partnership
with our health and safety experts
who understood pathology. "
" We have some communities with
high schools of 150 students, we
have other communities with high
schools with 3,000 students, " Cardona said.
Asked by Burr whether he thought
teachers should have priority in getting the COVID-19 vaccine and
whether teachers and students
should be vaccinated before schools
resume in-person classes, Cardona
said educators in general (not just
teachers) should have vaccine priority. He also stressed the importance
of virus testing. " I recognize the
frustration, distrust, and fear that's
out there, " he said. He did not share
an opinion about the importance of
student vaccinations, however.
Cardona said the $67 billion in
federal coronavirus relief for K-12
approved by Congress last year has
helped Connecticut schools mitigate against the virus. But he said
future COVID-19 relief for schools
must focus on learning recovery,
helping traumatized students, and
preserving education jobs. (The
Biden administration has proposed
$130 billion for K-12 schools to address those and other needs.)
And in both his introductory
remarks and in exchanges with
senators, Cardona prioritized disadvantaged students like those
in communities without many resources. He said the pandemic had
exacerbated and not created inequities that must be addressed by education leaders across the board.
" We're going to need more counselors in our schools. We're going to
need to make sure we have summer
programming. We're going to need
to make sure we have extended
day, " Cardona said in response to
a question from Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. " If we really want to recover, we really need to invest now
or we're going to pay later. "
'Discrimination based on gender is
illegal'

While the hearing featured little
drama, Republicans did press Cardona about his views on issues involving transgender students, at
times using provocative language
that troubled LGBTQ rights advocacy groups.
The issue of transgender students
participating on sports teams that
align with their gender identity has
become a controversial one in states,
including Connecticut recently. The
Trump administration said Connecticut schools violated federal Title IX

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Education Week - February 10, 2021

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