Feds Seek Additional Info For Assessment Waiver

CONCORD – In April 2018, the New Hampshire Department of Education (NH DOE) requested a waiver under the Section 1204 Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) from certain federal student assessment regulations for its Performance Assessment for Competency Education (PACE). On June 5, 2018, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) responded to the request and is seeking additional information prior to making a determination. In its evaluation of the waiver, the USED evaluated PACE to determine if it is comparable to the New Hampshire Statewide Assessment System (NHSAS), whether PACE is valid, reliable, of high technical quality, consistent with relevant, nationally recognized standards, and provides an unbiased, rational, and consistent determinations of student progress toward meeting student academic achievement goals.

Among other concerns that were raised by USED, the department must provide a budget for each year of the demonstration and evidence that sufficient quality control procedures exist for scoring locally developed performance tasks. The NH DOE must also provide a specific plan and timeline to conduct an external evaluation of PACE.

Frank Edelblut, the commission of the NH DOE, stated that the department would be working with key stakeholders to develop its reply to the request.

“We received more than 100 pages of feedback from the federal peer review process and are working through this information,” he said. “The goal is to develop a response plan as we better understand the concerns raised by [U.S.] Department of Education.”

• USED Response Letter