{"id":48960,"date":"2021-01-29T21:11:11","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T04:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-to-decide-whether-students-take-standardized-tests\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:45:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:45:40","slug":"colorado-to-decide-whether-students-take-standardized-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-to-decide-whether-students-take-standardized-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado to decide whether students take standardized tests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"John
John McEvoy\/Special to The Colorado SunEnglish teacher Lori Kester observes a student working in her class at Centennial School In San Luis, Colorado.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The question of whether Colorado should press forward with<\/p>\n

The debate is also serving as a proxy war for the longtime fight over the effectiveness of the assessments, even though if the tests are conducted this spring they would not be used to evaluate teacher performance, which is normally the main sticking point.<\/p>\n

On one side are opponents of the testing, including the Colorado Education Association, who say it\u2019s not possible to conduct assessments the right way given that students are in and out of in-person classes and under a great deal of stress because of COVID-19. Inaccurate results could lead to misplaced solutions.<\/p>\n

On the other side are groups who appear to have the support of Gov. Jared Polis and say without testing there will be no way to determine how far behind Colorado students have fallen and which districts need the most financial help to address those deficiencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s probably the most contentious (issue) just because you have some legitimate arguments on both sides,\u201d said Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat and former teacher who is pushing for the tests to be called off in 2021.<\/p>\n

Colorado canceled<\/a> its standardized testing for students in 2020 because of coronavirus after receiving a waiver from the federal government. A group of state lawmakers \u2014 three Democrats, including Zenzinger, and one Republican \u2014 are planning to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would direct the Polis administration to seek another waiver.<\/p>\n

Polis, who would have to sign the bill for it to go into effect, appears to support the testing as planned, pitting him against his party, the state\u2019s largest teachers union and many superintendents. His position may mean that any effort to stop the assessments could be vetoed if it reaches the Democrat\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first step to helping our students recover is to understand the gaps that exist across the state,\u201d spokesman Conor Cahill said in a written statement to The Colorado Sun. \u201c\u2026 We believe that these critical measurements will help us build back stronger for Colorado\u2019s students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to clarify if Polis supports the testing, Cahill referred The Sun back to his statement.<\/p>\n

\"Cherry
Cherry Creek School DistrictMasked children greet Gov. Jared Polis as he visits a second grade class in Aurora.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Katy Anthes, Polis\u2019 Colorado Department of Education chief, isn\u2019t taking a position on the matter. A spokesperson noted she won\u2019t decide whether the testing happens but that Anthes \u201cunderstands the varying perspectives on the issue and in fact agrees with the many valid concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate will heat up quickly when the legislature returns on Feb. 16. Lawmakers must act before April, when the Colorado Measures of Academic Success tests are scheduled to start being administered to children in grades 3 through 8.<\/p>\n

Proponents and opponents of allowing the testing this year are not split along partisan lines, meaning it\u2019s difficult to gauge if there will be enough support for the legislation to pass in the Democratic-controlled statehouse. There\u2019s also a chance that even if Colorado requests a waiver from the Biden administration, it could be denied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do deserve, and parents deserve, information on how their kids are doing,\u201d said Jen Walmer, Colorado state director for Democrats for Education Reform and Education Reform Now Advocacy, which are advocating for the testing to happen. \u201c\u2026 We 100% recognize and appreciate the very difficult circumstances that have faced our teachers and our schools this year. But the educational system is designed to educate kids and I, personally, don\u2019t want to lose sight of what kids need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walmer sees efforts to cancel testing this year as being linked to broader opposition to the assessments, which are required by federal law and have federal funding attached.<\/p>\n

Walmer\u2019s organizations partnered with Colorado Succeeds and Ready Colorado, a conservative-leaning education group, to pay for a poll gauging where Coloradans stand on the issue.<\/p>\n

Democratic-leaning Keating Research conducted the survey between Jan. 5 and Jan. 10 among 600 active, registered voters, 27% of whom have a child or children in the K-12 school age range. The margin of error was 4 percentage points.<\/p>\n

Of those surveyed, 46% said they support standardized testing for public school students in grades 3 through 8 that evaluate \u201cstudent learning, skill acquisition and academic achievement at the conclusion of the school year\u201d despite the disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic. Another 41% said they oppose; 13% said they didn\u2019t know or weren\u2019t sure how they felt.<\/p>\n

\"Mark
Mark Reis\/Special to The Colorado SunKatie White at home with her youngest daughter, Cami, in Colorado Springs on Saturday, September 26, 2020. White is a gym teacher at Columbia Elementary School in Colorado Springs. While teaching remotely due to COVID-19 she used her daughters Cami, 8, and Macy, 14 in instructional physical education videos for her students. White is now back teaching in-person but still creates video content for her at-home learners.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When asked about their feelings on the testing knowing the results \u201cwould be used only to determine the amount of student academic learning loss and to identify school and district trends without high-stakes implications,\u201d support jumped to 62%. Opposition was 25%, with 12% saying they didn\u2019t know or weren\u2019t sure how they felt.<\/p>\n

Walmer said the polling results \u201care pretty compelling\u201d and \u201cclearly show this isn\u2019t a divisive issue\u201d for parents across Colorado.<\/p>\n

But for state Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat who is bringing the bill to ask for a federal waiver, allowing the testing to move forward this spring is absolutely the wrong thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to conduct CMAS this year, logistically, no one has actually been able to make the case as to how this could actually be conducted in a way that is fair, that would accurately measure anything,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no telling how folks might attempt to use that data. It\u2019s not comparable to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zenzinger pointed out that conducting a standardized test requires a standardized environment. That\u2019s impossible during the pandemic because some kids are learning in person while others are learning from home over the Internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way that the individual variables and factors that go into taking this test are going to be standard,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 I want to make it very clear that I\u2019m not in the camp that wants to just permanently eliminate these tests. I think we need to have a conversation about that. I think now is not the appropriate time to have that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sirota agrees. She, too, wants to untangle the debate over testing this year with the broader battle over assessments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to set those arguments aside and think about what is best for our students and families right now in these conditions,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t see a benefit. There are other ways to measure where children are at, the needs of a district.\u201d<\/p>\n

George Welsh, superintendent of Ca\u00f1on City School District, also opposes testing students this spring, unsure that districts will be able to accurately measure their students\u2019 academic gains and losses and compare them to last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see how the numbers are really going to be valid in the end,\u201d said Welsh, whose opinion on state testing has evolved this school year.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also concerned that districts will have to quarantine some students during the testing window because of potential exposures to COVID-19, further complicating the administration of the assessments.<\/p>\n

Welsh said most districts give their students local assessments \u2014 which indicate how students are faring with their learning \u2014 though remote learning has complicated teachers\u2019 ability to roll out those tests to students one on one. Taking a pass on state testing this year, he said, could save districts a significant amount of time \u2014 time that could be better spent on lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gain a bunch of instructional time that otherwise would be spent preparing for administering those tests,\u201d Welsh said, adding that it\u2019s a fairly complicated process.<\/p>\n

Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association, the state\u2019s largest teacher union, is adamant that schools \u201cneed to commit every single second to instruction.\u201d As a parent, she said, she is concerned about students potentially going weeks without instruction for the sake of an assessment.<\/p>\n

Joanna Rosa-Saenz, a parent of three students enrolled in Denver Public Schools, is more confident in her kids\u2019 teachers than she is in a standardized test when it comes to tracking their progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI measure by them,\u201d Rosa-Saenz said. \u201cThis is their passion. This is why they become a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kathryn
Kathryn Scott\/Special to The Colorado Sun<br><br>Joanna Rosa-Saenz and Silvia Estala-Monreal became fast friends at their children&#x2019;s school and work together to advocate for their kids&#x2019; education as they do at Rosa-Saenz&#x2019;s home on Oct. 12, 2020, in Denver. Rosa-Saenz gets her two sons, Gabriel, 8, left, and Alejandro, 4, an after-school snack.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rosa-Saenz has long opposed standardized testing, opting her own children out of it. Every kid learns differently, she said, and standardized tests don\u2019t fit every student\u2019s preferred mode of learning. She also doesn\u2019t want to add any more stress to her children\u2019s academic life after a year of pandemic-driven disruptions, noting that the social-emotional health of students should be the top priority.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Jeff Bridges of Greenwood Village is a Democrat who wants to proceed with the testing. He recognizes testing this year wouldn\u2019t be as accurate, but he thinks the results would still be valuable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will give us at least a rough idea of the learning loss we\u2019re seeing across the state,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how severe that loss is, and we don\u2019t know the geographic distribution. That data will help us make better, more informed decisions about how best to support our students and teachers moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, echoed Bridges. He said data can help direct educators toward what their students need academically.<\/p>\n

\u201cTesting is always about trying to understand where we are, and testing is always imprecise,\u201d Lundeen said. \u201cIt\u2019s never perfect. It clearly will be more imperfect in this environment than it has been previously. However, to not make an effort to understand where we are is a mistake. We need to understand with the clearest information we can get where we\u2019re at, and it creates a baseline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cImperfect information is better than no information,\u201d Lundeen said.<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

appears to support moving forward with testing, despite opposition from the teachers union<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,155,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-48960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87496,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48960\/revisions\/87496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48960"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=48960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}