About Us

The CBE was started by a group of aspiring teachers from the University of Northern Colorado.

It's rapidly expanding to teachers, parents, and students across the state.

Click on the red title below for an interview by Yvonne Siu-Runyan of Don Perl, founder of the Coalition for Better Educataion.

Goals:

To Raise Awareness about the costs of CSAP & NCLB:

Colorado spends more than $16 million to administer CSAP.
Students in grades 3-10 take the CSAP every year.
CSAP is a high-stakes test that puts a lot of pressure on teachers and students.
CSAP has resulted in the curtailment of instruction in areas not covered by the test, such as foreign languages, social studies, and even science. (Science is not going to be tested until later).
CSAP does NOT measure a child's overall academic ability.
Many educators take more than a month out of their normal curriculum to prepare and test for CSAP.
Teaching to the test promotes shallow learning and decreases critical thinking skills and creativity.
Teachers do NOT receive CSAP scores to assess their current students until they have moved on to the next grade level.
Many educators believe CSAP is taking the fun out of school for children.

To Raise Awareness about No Child Left Behind (NCLB):

There is not enough funding to implement all of the requirements of NCLB.
It says that all states are required to have a statewide standardized assessment program.
A school will receive a rating of UNSATISFACTORY if less than 95% of the students take CSAP (according to NCLB).
Schools have to reach Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in order to comply with NCLB.
All students have to be proficient in reading, math and science by the year 2014.
NCLB is a blatant attempt by the federal government to erode local control of schools by imposing unfunded national standards and mandates.

To Empower Parents and Teachers:

All parents will know that their child can opt out of CSAP.
Teachers will no longer face censorship and will be empowered to speak out concerning their professional opposition or reservations about CSAP and similar testing.
Teacher organizations will be empowered to voice the concerns of their membership on the subject of standardized testing without fear of political and/or financial retribution.
Parents and teachers will provide insight on deciding future educational policies.
Teachers will not be discouraged from voicing their opinions about CSAP.
Legislators will value the expertise and concerns of parents and teachers.
Parents, teachers and students will show legislators the consequences of high stakes testing like CSAP.
Parents, students, and teachers will be empowered to regain control of their schools from the politicians and large multinational corporations who advocate and profit from standardized testing programs like CSAP.