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Measure to curtail CSAPs advances

House bill would cut writing exam

By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 21, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

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Statewide student achievement tests would be scaled back sharply under a bill approved Thursday by the House Education Committee.

HB 1357 would eliminate the writing exam, along with all exams for ninth- and 10th-graders, the highest grades in which the test now occurs.

Juniors would continue to take the ACT test, a college entrance exam.

The bill passed 7-6 after testimony by parents and teachers who said children spend too much time taking tests.

"I feel CSAP fatigue," Cindy Dreher, a teacher at Hulstrom Options K-8 school in the Northglenn-Thornton school district, told the lawmakers. "For the last two weeks, life has revolved around CSAP."

The bill, by Rep. Judy Solano, D-Brighton, could face a rough road.

Gov. Bill Ritter has said he wants to address the testing issue as part of a comprehensive school reform package that has been introduced in the Senate.

Ritter has not threatened a veto, but he suggested earlier in the week that Solano work to include her ideas in the larger reform package.

Education Commissioner Dwight Jones and most members of the Colorado Board of Education back Ritter's strategy.

Solano said following the committee vote that the measure should move forward.

All the Republicans on the education committee opposed Solano's bill, as did Rep. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, the main House sponsor of the measure Ritter favors.

The tests administered under the Colorado Student Achievement Program are the state's way of measuring compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That measure does not require the writing test Solano's bill eliminates.

The federal law requires only one test during the high school years. However, state officials would need federal approval to count ACT as that test.

morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303 954-5209

Comments

  • March 22, 2008

    11:38 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    kathyM writes:

    Yay! Less testing and more education!

  • March 23, 2008

    8:59 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    cimsibs writes:

    CSAP testing takes less than 2% of a student's time in any school year. Solano is "shooting the messenger", the test, because the numbers of Little Johnnies and Little Suzies that still can not read, write or do math hasn't changed much. CSAP results are the one way parents can gauge how well the schools are educating the students. Why is it that the percentages of below grade level students (partially proficient & unsatisfactory categories) don't change much from year to year? Guess it is OK to leave these kids academically drowning and not worry about determining the learning gaps these kids have. Nor is anyone concerned enough to demand these kids be served. After all, more education and less testing should do it for these kids, right?