The 2021 test results were not used to evaluate teachers or rate schools and districts as the school accountability system remained on pause. Participation was also significantly lower in many places. The spring 2021 tests were significantly scaled back compared to 2019 as students either took English or math tests, depending on their grade level, instead of both. The federal government only approved narrow waiver requests and denied requests from states that wanted to halt testing completely. In the spring, Colorado lawmakers passed legislation that scaled back 2021 state testing, just a week before districts were to administer the tests. “At some point we need to demand accountability again,” he said. Colin Larson, a Littleton Republican who serves on the House Education Committee, said the drop in test scores during the pandemic calls for more attention, not less. The state’s accountability system has enjoyed bipartisan support. The proposal is likely to face pushback from some Democrats and many Republicans. “We can’t just step back into the accountability system as if nothing happened.” We need an interim approach,” Zenzinger said. “We think there might be some unintended consequences if we just apply the old system. It might mean monitoring schools whose performance dropped during the pandemic, but not with the same level of scrutiny, or allowing schools to leave the watch list more quickly. The Arvada Democrat said she’s still working with colleagues and school district officials to determine the details.
State board test full#
Rachel Zenzinger, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, plans to introduce legislation this session that would blunt the full consequences of the state’s accountability system while schools are still recovering from the pandemic. Any changes ultimately require federal waivers and legislative action or an executive order from Gov. The laws also describe how tests should be used for rating schools and districts.
Without a transition, simply resuming the accountability system in 2022 is fraught with issues that will impact the integrity of the accountability system and could cause unnecessary harm to students, schools and districts.”įederal and state law require standardized tests - in Colorado, that’s the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, better known as CMAS, for students in third through eighth grades and the PSAT and SAT for high school students. “Now more than ever, we must have a thoughtful transition as we move from the limited and inconsistent data of the past two years back to fully implementing the current law. “Today’s resolutions made by the Colorado State Board of Education recognize that we are still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and all of the disruptions and pressures on students that come along with it,” Baca-Oehlert said. In a written statement responding to the State Board’s proposed plan, Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association, pointed out that there are still disruptions related to COVID this school year. Instead, the state board could make policy changes so that schools or districts that have improved results which are representative - with at least 90% participation rates - could request a hearing with the state to reconsider their ratings.Īll seven State Board members approved the three recommendations.
The 2022 ratings would not automatically move schools or districts on or off the state’s watchlist for low performance, according to the board’s recommendations. The accountability system has been on pause during the pandemic. The legislature will have final say in making these changes this session as they are part of state law, but the board approved the plan to show lawmakers what they support. The resolutions also included details for creating a transitional year in which the ratings would have lower stakes for schools and districts. In a special meeting Thursday morning, the board approved three resolutions recommending that full state testing begin again this spring and that the accountability ratings resume for schools and districts. The State Board weighed in as key Democratic lawmakers are considering legislation that would provide a transition period before schools face the full consequences of low student performance. The Colorado Board of Education recommended Thursday resuming full statewide testing and using those results to restart accountability ratings, but state lawmakers ultimately will decide what the system looks like next year.
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