Schools face enormous challenges regarding how to operate efficiently and safely for the 2020-21 school year. As part of that response, some state leaders are asking the U.S. Department of Education to waive the annual federal testing and accountability requirements for 2021, which are key to understanding and addressing gaps in education among students. Parents, educators, administrators, and policymakers need more information about how students are doing and being served, not less. These data need to capture multiple aspects of student well-being, including social-emotional needs, engagement, and conditions for learning so that families, educators, and local and state leaders can be responsive to the needs of all students. Just as importantly, there is a need for comparable data to look across schools and student groups to better understand the overall academic performance of children. Therefore, the annual assessment requirement should not be waived; instead, states must adapt and be responsive to the nation's new reality and create a plan to scale back the assessments--not eliminate them. This issue brief discusses why schools should assess students next year using the annual state assessment; the role that other academic assessments should play in providing high-quality instruction; and what states and districts can do to support sound, timely, relevant, and actionable practices for collecting a variety of student information next year.