Calling on the Pennsylvania Department of Education to cancel the PSSA and Keystone exams for the 2020-2021 academic year and redirect the resources to providing the best digital learning environment possible.

WHEREAS; The Covid-19 global pandemic has forced children out of classrooms, teaching online and learning from home are fundamentally different activities than the circumstances of prior years; and

WHEREAS; The purpose of exams is to compare like things; and

WHEREAS; The 2020-2021 academic year is unlikely any school year in more than one hundred years; and

WHEREAS; Without a reasonable comparator the value of an exam is greatly diminished; and

WHEREAS; Until the pandemic ends a reasonable baseline and/or a corrective course of action are difficult if not impossible to construct; and

WHEREAS; Schools are facing looming budget cuts unlike anything seen in a generation; and

WHEREAS; Schools are attempting to keep students as close as possible to learning benchmarks and test prep time and spending would diminish the time and resources spent on knowledge acquisition; and

WHEREAS: With the lack of comparator, a financial and time crunch and without an obvious end date to pandemic disruptions it would be most beneficial for students and teachers to skip testing this year and until learning may resume equitably and in the classroom; now, therefore. be it

RESOLVED, That The City Council of Philadelphia, Calls upon the Pennsylvania Department of Education to cancel the PSSA and Keystone exams for the 2020-2021 academic year and redirect the resources to providing the best digital learning environment possible

End