Pennsylvania System of State Assessments and Keystone Exams will be administered this year but state education department officials say they are looking to allow schools to delay them to as late as September.

In a draft letter to the U.S Department of Education that is open for public comment, state Acting Education Secretary Noe Ortega indicated the idea behind extending the testing window to the fall, when schools are expecting to offer in-person instruction five days a week, is that it will ensure a larger number of students will take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments and Keystone Exams.

That was a concern that superintendents raised about the state exams given the large percentage of students who are choosing a virtual school option.

“Right now Cumberland Valley has about 30% of its students fully virtual education,” said Cumberland Valley School District Superintendent David Christopher. “I do not think those families are going to send their kids in for PSSAs for two weeks. I don’t know why they would take that risk if they are not bringing their kids in for instruction and socialization.”

State Deputy Education Secretary Matt Stem said at a Tuesday House Education Committee hearing that extending the testing window will allow districts to administer the exams in the summer or in September “but do so without forcing teachers and educators into buildings where they may still be in remote learning.”

Stem told the committee more guidance to schools about administration of the state exams, which are federally mandated, would be forthcoming in the days and weeks ahead.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance to states advising them that they did not intend to waive the testing mandate but suggested state education officials consider shortening the state exams, offering remote administration where feasible and/or extending the testing window.

While the extension of the testing window is appreciated, the president of Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union said the union is disappointed the federal department has chosen not to suspend the testing mandate for a second consecutive year due to COVID-19.

“Our students have already lost too much classroom instructional time,” said Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey in a statement. “While we clearly prefer a federal waiver of annual assessments just as the U.S. Department of Education offered last year, PSEA welcomes the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s plan to provide school districts with needed time and flexibility to address the logistics of annual standardized testing during the pandemic.”

He said that will allow educators and students more time this spring to focus on teaching and learning instead of losing time to testing.

Askey added, “This important flexibility will ultimately require strategies at the local level to complete testing this summer or fall. It is our hope that this approach could offer safer conditions for the administration of assessments.”

Stem told the committee the department also is likely going to apply for waivers to the 95% test participation requirement and certain accountability measure that the federal department is allowing to be suspended.