Colorado should cancel majority of CMAS testing, Irish Elementary teacher testifies Molly Bohannon, Fort Collins Coloradoan
Poudre School District working to provide support for students in remote learning
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Mark Bartlett was not in his class at Irish Elementary School on Friday morning.
Instead, Bartlett joined a number of other educators and school administrators who testified virtually in front of the Colorado House Committee on Education in favor of a bill that would require the Colorado Department of Education to request a federal waiver to suspend portions of Colorado Measures of Academic Success, or CMAS, testing for the year.
Mark Bartlett was not in his class at Irish Elementary School on Friday morning.
Instead, Bartlett joined a number of other educators and school administrators who testified virtually in front of the Colorado House Committee on Education in favor of a bill that would require the Colorado Department of Education to request a federal waiver to suspend portions of Colorado Measures of Academic Success, or CMAS, testing for the year. After nearly a year of unconventional education, we re playing catch-up to develop these essential skills, said Bartlett, who teaches fourth grade and physical education and emphasized the importance of skills like teamwork and communication that are not measured in a standardized test.
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Citing fallout from the pandemic, a resolution unanimously passed by the Aspen School District Board of Education on Tuesday supports canceling state spring assessment tests.
“Whereas, the mental health of students and staff has been seriously and negatively impacted by stress and concerns related to the pandemic and would be unnecessarily exacerbated by mandatory … state assessments this spring, particularly in light of the academic difficulties teachers and students are already facing due to the pandemic,” said part of the resolution.
Aspen joins Denver, Boulder and other Colorado school districts opposed to giving students end-of-the-year standardized tests known as CMAS Colorado Measures of Academic Success.
Alan Petersime/Chalkbeat
Whether to give standardized tests in the middle of a pandemic is shaping up to be one of the key education debates of Colorado’s 2021 legislative session, dividing education advocates and elected officials alike.
But what do parents want? Advocacy groups have released results from competing polls that come to opposite conclusions to argue that the general public agrees with them.
One poll of 600 registered voters commissioned by Democrats for Education Reform, the business-affiliated group Colorado Succeeds, and the conservative education advocacy group Ready Colorado found that 62% of respondents supported giving standardized tests if they wouldn’t be used to penalize schools or teachers for low student performance.