CSAPs: What's Right for Our Children?

I'm not against standardized testing. I remember taking standardized tests as a child. Teachers told students to do their best and that was the end of it. It was simply one form, one method, to measure how children were doing at that point in time.

Not so anymore. The Colorado Student Assessment Plan has turned public education upside down, all so Governor Owens and other politicians of the past can say they did something about the need for education reform.

No Child Left Behind mandates that all children will be proficient in reading and math by the year 2014. (What dreamland were our Washington representatives living in when they agreed to this?) This means, basically, that our schools must, every year, show more and more growth toward this 100% proficiency or risk being penalized or even closed down. It means 100% of all children, regardless of disabilities and other considerations, will be 100% proficient in reading and math by 2014.

As if this weren't bad enough, Colorado has tacked on an extra -.05 score for children who do not participate in CSAP because they are ill, out of town, or opted out by their parents.

The fact that our schools are graded solely on this one test is a crime in itself. To further punish schools for the decisions of parents or other circumstances that are out of the school's control is beyond ridiculous. The fact that this negative score skews the data on our School Accountability Reports should be enough to compel any state legislator to vote in favor of doing away with it.

For four legislators on the House Education Committee, however, this was not the case. I testified on Monday, February 12, in favor of Representative Judy Solano's House Bill 1186, "No Penalty for Nonparticipation in CSAP." I think I did a rather poor job in my testimony but, thankfully, there were several well-spoken people who made up for it.

The vote, at the end of it all, was 9 in favor and 4 opposed to this bill. It did pass but I can't help feeling disappointment, and even some disgust, that the vote was not unanimous.

Colorado is the only state in the nation that tacks on a punitive score for children who do not participate in CSAP. The logic behind this negative score is that it will keep parents from opting their children out of the tests. That it will prevent teachers from urging parents to keep their special education or low scoring children home. (No Child Left Behind requires a 95% participation rate on these tests as it is, so this happens very, very rarely.)

The truth is that parents will do what they feel is best for their children regardless of any penalty their school might take.

Perhaps if there weren't so much stress placed on our school districts, administrators, teachers and ultimately, our children, to do well on these tests, legislators wouldn't have to worry about parents opting their children out at all.

When my 11 th grade child is sick to her stomach nervous about taking the ACT test, that's one thing. When a 3 rd grader is throwing up the morning CSAP testing begins that is quite another. There is a problem here.

When school days are lengthened and recess and lunch times are decreased (in some states they have done away with recess altogether) in order to allow more time toward improving CSAP test scores, there is a problem.

The funny thing is, with all this stress placed on our schools and children to do well on CSAPs, our state is not making the grade. We haven't met the mandate of No Child Left Behind for Adequate Yearly Progress since NCLB went into effect. Not many states have. This alone should tell us all something about the validity of grading our schools based solely on one test. Furthermore, the people who grade our children's CSAP tests don't have to be educators or even have any kind of degree.

Then there is the fifty some odd million dollars we, as taxpayers, pay each year for all this testing.

For me, the bottom line is, the state government has no right to hold me hostage as a parent, forcing me to weigh what I feel is best for my children against the punishment of a negative test score for my school if I choose to opt them out of testing. The state government has no right to threaten any school with this negative score for parental decisions that are beyond the school's control.

As stated previously, I am not against standardized testing. I am not against holding our schools and teachers accountable. What I believe is that the people, the legislators and school board members, enacting the standards of accountability for our schools have the responsibility to ensure that accountability is realistic and reasonable. They have the responsibility to see to it that our schools are funded properly in order to meet these accountability mandates. Right now we have neither responsible legislation nor proper funding.

No Child Left Behind is under-funded by something like $21 billion. Our schools have had the weight of mandate after mandate after mandate placed on them without the funding to hire more teachers, aids, and materials to meet these mandates.

Something has to change but it will not happen until parents like me, like you, protest what is happening to our schools. Until we come out and make it clear that we have had it with the kind of stress placed on CSAP testing, these problems will continue. Parents need to write to their legislators ( www.votesmart.com will help you find out who they are and where to call or write) and tell them we want change. Tell them this negative score for tests not taken makes for unreliable data and should be done away with!

These are our children. It's past time all our representatives, republicans and democrats alike, thought more about how these innocent, young people are affected by irresponsible education legislation than they do about towing their party line. The four state representatives who voted against House Bill 1186 should be ashamed of themselves.