Colorado’s first independent congressional redistricting commission is complete, after a panel of retired judges selected the final six commissioners Monday, meaning the group of 12 can begin to meet and make decisions about how to move forward with their mapping duties.
Monday’s selection comes as challenges to the group s efforts mount.
The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that the data used for redistricting is going to be months delayed, from late March to late September, and putting the state’s newly reformed redistricting process in a bind.
Jessika Shipley, the legislative council staff member in charge of facilitating the redistricting commissions’ work, said the commissioners will need to immediately address how they want to handle the delay. But she said the requirements in the new constitutional amendments simply aren’t going to work if the data isn’t delivered until September. “Bottom line: the deadlines have to be waived,” she said.
Colorado considering whether to have CMAS testing this year 9news.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from 9news.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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.
“I don’t think it’s coincidence that you have Jeffco, Dougco, Cherry Creek and Denver all looking for superintendents at the same time,” Tom Boasberg muses from his office in Singapore, where he moved after resigning as superintendent of Denver Public Schools in 2018.
“It points to the challenges inherent in the role and structure,” he says. “You get beat up a lot in the role. You’re not going to do the role and not be punched in the face. It’s a role that people have very strong feelings about and very diverse perspectives on, and it’s not for the faint of heart.”
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.