Untying the educational evaluator’s hands: a preliminary tele-assessment framework

Abstract Despite knowledge of COVID-19’s expected impact on the 2020 and 2021 academic school years, policymakers, professional organizations, and test publishers have failed to offer consistent, well-defined or corresponding advice to educational evaluators on how to meet the unique challenges the pandemic has introduced. The directive vacuum that was produced led individuals and school districts to create their own policies and practices as a temporary stopgap. As a consequence, diagnosticians and evaluators across the country were left to interpret confusing legal requirements and competing professional recommendations concerning whether students could be evaluated remotely, whereby social distancing could be observed while continuing to address the ever-present academic needs of our youth. This essay calls for the development of clear testing standards for remote testing.