Education Week - March 17, 2021 - 2

Federal Lawmakers
Urge Secretary
Cardona to Let
States Cancel Tests

Jeff Chiu/AP

Trouble is brewing in Democratic paradise, especially when it comes to those annual student tests
states are required to administer.
A group of congressional Democrats from the
House and the Senate have written to U.S. Secretary
of Education Miguel Cardona trying to persuade him
to let states nix standardized tests, despite the Biden
administration's decision last month not to consider
requests to do so.
In addition, the lawmakers say the U.S. Department
of Education should focus on other ways to support
students and educators during the pandemic.
" Taken together, it becomes clear that this pandemic has exacerbated many of the existing inequities
in our public education system, " the letter says. " As
such, our response should not begin with reassessing
the situation, but rather with providing the resources
schools need to safely reopen and address the learning
loss from the past year. "
The pushback from fellow Democrats shows
that the Biden Education Department's decision to grant states waivers from accountability
requirements under federal law, but not to allow
them to simply cancel mandated standardized
exams, remains a controversial issue in the president's political coalition. The two national teachers' unions-ardent Biden supporters-expressed
disappointment in the Feb. 22 guidance that included that decision.
Republicans in Congress have also expressed skepticism about the value of the state exams this year: the
burden they could place on schools, the validity of test
scores, the logistics of giving tests in person, among
other issues.
However, the department, several prominent education groups, and others have highlighted the importance of the exams to assess the needs of schools and
students, even if accountability requirements won't
apply this school year.
" We believe the purpose of state assessments this
year should be to provide information to parents, educators, and the public about student performance
and to help target resources and supports-not for
accountability, " said department spokeswoman
Kelly S. Leon.

Keep Out

Calif. Dangles Extra Money Before Districts
To Encourage Officials to Reopen Schools
If the stick doesn't work, let's try the carrot. That seems to be
the philosophy behind California lawmakers' latest attempt to
get students back into schools.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the $6.6 billion legislative measure aimed at pressuring school districts to return students to the
classroom before the end of the school year.
The law does not order districts to resume in-person instruction and it does not say parents must send their children back to
the classroom.
Instead, the state will dangle $2 billion before cash-strapped
school boards, offering them a share of that money only if they
offer in-person instruction.
" We need to get the schools reopened. And I know it's hard,
but today we are providing powerful tools for schools to move
in this direction, " said state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat, who
pleaded with his San Francisco district to accept the money and
offer in-person instruction.
Indeed, San Francisco recently came to an agreement with its
teachers' union and planned on reopening for elementary students.

Cyberattacks on School Districts Soared
During the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020
Cyberattacks on districts surged by a whopping 18 percent
in calendar year 2020, likely because of the greater reliance on
classroom technology during the pandemic, says a report released last week by the K12 Security Information Exchange and
the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center.
Just over 400 cyberattacks were publicly disclosed last calendar year, compared with 348 in 2019, the report found. That
amounts to more than two per school day.
Districts largely failed the " stress test of the resiliency and security of the K-12 educational technology ecosystem, " the report
concludes. " The evidence suggests that in rapidly shifting to re-

mote learning, school districts not only exposed themselves to
greater cybersecurity risks but were also less able to mitigate the
impact of the cyber incidents they experienced. "
In addition to the usual cyberattacks-denial of service, ransomware, phishing, and data breaches-a brand-new type of
cyberattack was introduced: invasions. " Class invasions, " also
known as " Zoom raids " or " Zoom bombing, " included unauthorized people disrupting online classes, often with hate speech,
sexual or shocking images, videos, or threats.
So-called " meeting invasions " used similar tactics and mostly
targeted PTA meetings, school board meetings, virtual open

In Los Angeles, the district and teachers' union also came
to a tentative deal that would allow a partial reopening of
campuses.
Nearly every lawmaker voted for the bill, but many did so reluctantly, arguing it's too weak.
The bill does not say how much time students should spend in
the classroom, prompting fears some districts might have students return for just one day a week. And while the bill requires
most elementary grades to return to the classroom to get the
money, it does not require all middle and high school grades to
return this year.
Senate Republicans tried to amend the bill to say schools must
offer at least three days per week of in-person learning, but Democrats rejected it.
" The truth is (this bill) doesn't do anything to reopen our
schools, " said Scott Wilk, the GOP leader in the Senate, who
voted for the bill along with most other Republicans.
The measure also includes $4.6 billion aimed at helping students catch up after a year of learning from home.

houses, and other events drawing relatively larger groups of
people. And " email invasions " typically entailed breaking into
district email servers and using them to send hate speech, distressing images, and other inappropriate content to those on
district email lists.
The pandemic may be a big part of the reason for the spike in cyberattacks, the report says. That's because schools dramatically
increased their use of technology beginning last spring, by handing
out thousands of new devices, using new platforms without a lot of
training for teachers, allowing educators to use free apps that hadn't
been scrutinized for privacy and security factors, and the like.
What's more, IT staff may have used new remote-access tools
to keep teachers and students connected, creating more opportunities for hackers to get into district networks. And students and
teachers who did return to school may have brought back devices
that were used on less-than-secure home networks.

BRIEFLY STATED CONTRIBUTORS: Associated Press, Evid Blad, Alyson Klein, Andrew Ujifusa, and Mark Walsh. Edited by Karen Diegmueller.
2 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 17, 2021 | www.edweek.org

An entrance to
Washington
Elementary School in
San Francisco is locked
and chained. The
school remained
closed last week, but
the district and
teachers' union came
to an agreement on
reopening schools-at
least for elementary
students-while state
lawmakers in California
enacted an incentive
plan for getting
children back into
classrooms.
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Education Week - March 17, 2021

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