Colorado Education Board Members Hear Testing Complaints
DENVER (AP) - A Colorado State Board of Education member says more than 100 parents have told him of attempts to pressure them into allowing their children to take standardized tests, prompting the board to issue a statement Monday to rein in districts.
This month, Colorado districts began assessments that for the first time are linked to the national Common Core standards, which have sparked debate across the country about local control over education and about the costs and benefits of testing. The Colorado board itself has been swept up in the debate.
Board member Steve Durham has proposed allowing whole school districts to opt out of the tests. On Monday, Durham told The Associated Press that more than 100 parents across 20 districts had told him of attempts by local district officials to get them to let their children take the tests including saying students who did not would be excluded from extracurricular activities or would have to stay home throughout the assessment period, which can be spread out over weeks to cover all the grades being assessed.
That prompted a statement from the board on Monday, noting that it adopted a resolution last week strongly discouraging school boards or districts from attempting "to influence parents' decisions about testing."
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Durham, who would not name the districts about which he heard complaints, said districts have a legal obligation to encourage parents not to pull their children out of testing.
"But how they do that is the issue," he said, saying districts should not resort to "undue pressure or threats."
State and federal laws require the tests, and districts shoot for 95 percent participation, the state board said Monday. Earlier this year, the board passed a motion to not hold districts accountable for low participation due to parents opting out, the board said Monday.
Durham said though it was too early to determine trends, anecdotal evidence pointed to at least 95 percent participation this year.
Jane Goff, another board member, said she would like to see as many students as possible take the tests.
"We have a duty, we have a responsibility to make sure that all these kids get a chance to show what they can do," said Goff, a former teacher. "This is an opportunity to put us on a new track to identify how kids are doing and where we stand as a system."
The Common Core movement originated with the states and has been supported by the federal government. The standards adopted by most states are meant to ensure young people head to college or the workplace with a sophisticated grasp of language and math that they can use to solve real-world problems. Test designers sought to create assessments that require students to make judgments and demonstrate understanding.
Even educators who have embraced Common Core and the tests aligned with the standards say they would like students to spend less time being tested. In the small district of Las Animas County in southern Colorado, Superintendent Elsie Goines said the new tests, which have to be taken on computers, were putting a strain on her computer labs.
But "our students have always been more than willing to take tests and we have been more than willing to take a look at that (resulting) documentation to see how we're doing," she said.
Goines said her district usually meets the 95 percent mark for student participation, but she did not expect to do so this year. She said parents were opting out for a variety of reasons.
In Denver, Colorado's largest district, Superintendent Tom Boasberg sent parents a letter before testing started last week noting that legislators have taken up the issue and that his administration has lobbied for fewer and shorter tests. He called the new tests "a big step forward" from past assessments and said the information gleaned from them would be valuable.
Denver officials say usually only about 1 percent of their students are pulled out of testing by their parents, and they expected the figure to be under 1 percent this year.
- By Donna Bryson, AP Writer
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