Editorial: California and the feds are in yet another silly standoff over school tests

California and the U.S. Department of Education are in a standoff about testing — again. The state education department is introducing new science tests to go with its updated science curriculum, and it doesn’t want to administer the old exams while it road-tests the new ones. Federal officials withheld their permission, but the state appears set to go its own way.

It all sounds so familiar.

For all the apprehension in Sacramento about Donald Trump as president, state officials have long bumped heads with the Obama administration on the education front. California couldn’t get a waiver from No Child Left Behind because state officials refused to make students’ scores on standardized tests a significant part of teacher evaluations, as the feds demanded. Smart move; the federal policy was based on little to no evidence that it improves education.

Then California wanted to introduce its new tests for math and English, aligned with the Common Core curriculum, and eliminate the old tests, which no longer fit with what the state was teaching. It didn’t want to hold schools accountable for the results on the new tests, though, because both the curriculum and tests were in a transition phase. The Obama administration said no. California said it was going ahead anyway. Federal officials did some saber-rattling about withholding funding but caved in the end.

Now, in a nearly identical move, the state wants to give the new science tests, dump the old ones and not hold schools responsible for the results until everyone gets used to the new curriculum and exams. The U.S. Department of Education rejected the proposal, saying if California won’t report scores for the new tests, it has to give the old tests as well. Once again, the state is right: It shouldn’t test something it isn’t teaching anymore. And it shouldn’t be pushed to double-test; schools are supposed to be eliminating duplicative tests.

California isn’t budging, and this time, it has an odd wind at its back: Republicans, who have vehemently opposed the strong federal oversight of schools that the Obama administration championed. It remains to be seen whether Trump’s nominee for Education secretary, Betsy DeVos — who’s been a vocal critic of Common Core since her appointment — will be more hands-off. But state officials clearly figure they have nothing to lose by stalling.

The federal government is missing the forest for the trees here. Its big concern shouldn’t be how the state transitions to a new test, but whether California ever will produce an accountability system that informs the public about how individual schools are performing. The confusing, color-code grid that the state has drawn up seems designed to obfuscate more than hold schools responsible. No matter how much power Republicans might want to return to states, basic accountability is a bedrock of the new federal school law. It should not be abandoned.

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