Unpopular public schools tests should be scrapped, says taskforce

A state task force is calling on lawmakers to scale back standardized tests for Colorado students — and local school district officials are happy to hear it.

The Colorado Standards and Assessments Task Force, which includes teachers, administrators, parents and others, issued a report late last month urging the state Legislature to roll back some tests and tweak others.

The taskforce called on state lawmakers to get rid of state-mandated tests for high school seniors — tests that were first administered last fall and proved unpopular with parents and students. They also said districts should have more flexibility when it comes to school readiness tests for kindergarten students and to allow a paper-and-pencil option for all tests.

Harry Bull, superintendent of Cherry Creek School District, said that at high schools, the tests need to have value to students.

During the first Colorado Measures of Academic Success, CMAS, exams administered to seniors last fall, thousands of students around the state left class in protest.

Bull said those tests didn’t matter for a senior’s graduation, or their college acceptance, so the students didn’t have much buy-in.

“From the behavior this fall, many of the kids and their parents are saying it doesn’t have meaning,” he said.

Bull said that starting in eighth grade, standardized testing needs to put an emphasis on college and careers, while tests at lower levels should be designed as a measure of whether students are learning the basics.

The taskforce’s recommendations, which state lawmakers have yet to take up but are expected to later in the legislative session, said state-mandated tests for students in 11th grade and up should be limited to a college entrance exam like the ACT, but districts should still have the option of administering CMAS.

Lisa Escárcega, chief accountability and research officer for Aurora Public Schools served on the taskforce as a representative for district administrators. She said that as state lawmakers look at the group recommendations, she hopes they give the districts some flexibility.

For that 11th grade test, for example, Escárcega said she hopes lawmakers take the taskforce’s recommendation and continues to offer and pay for the CMAS tests. Districts would then be able to choose whether they want to administer the test on its own or in conjunction with their own tests, she said.

“I do think we would be supportive of districts having some choice,” she said.

As for the test for 12th graders, Escárcega said the CMAS was well-intentioned, but didn’t prove useful.

“In theory it didn’t sound too bad, but it obviously was not an effective way to do that assessment,” she said.

Other changes the taskforce recommended, including loosening restrictions on administering some early childhood assessments, can be made without a change to state law, she said, and APS officials are going to look into tweaking those.