Recent Editorials & Commentaries
Fried: It's Time to Scrap the CSAP
By Eric Fried
10:27 a.m. MT Mar 11, 2008
Last week my children came home with the annual notice about their school's upcoming Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) tests, which steal valuable time from actual learning over many weeks. The most galling part is the recommendation that my kids get a good night's sleep and eat a good breakfast, so they can perform well on the tests. Since we don't get a notice to send them to school rested and well fed on normal school days, school administrators are telling us that testing matters more than learning. Read the rest of Fried's Column
Scott Van Loo's Ancedote about his son:
My son, who is in fifth grade this year, and I sat down a month and a half ago and started talking about the CSAP. He articulately told me that he did not want to take the tests, that they gave him no benefit and that he did not want to sit through the 13+ hours of testing.
He has had a history of anxious behavior with these tests that started in the first grade. His teacher at that time was loving and caring man who could have passed for Santa on any given day. The kids absolutely loved this man, and unfortunately he felt that he needed to prepare his first graders for a life time of tests. He would give kids spelling tests and use his 'test' voice and threaten to throw student's papers in the trash. Half of the class would be crying and all were confused, but he continued because he "wanted kids to learn to deal with the anxiety at a young age so they wouldn't have to go through what he did as a kid." In other words, he wanted kids to be numb to their feelings and anxieties about testing. Read the Rest of Van Loo's story
The Seedy Truth of CSAP by Don Perl
The Greeley Tribune recently sponsored advertisements encouraging parents to approach CSAP testing as a positive force in their children's education. The first lines of the propaganda read: "Taking CSAP is a great way for kids to 'show what they know' and it's the right thing to do. It's important to your child, your school and our community."
Yet evidence is overwhelming that reducing our children to scores on a grid is educational malpractice. We also know now that this testing regimen, now in its tenth year of failing our children, is nothing more than the collusion of big business and politics. This union masterfully distorts language to manipulate parents and exploit their children with the propaganda of the goodness and correctness of answering to the mandate to test. However, even politicians are finally becoming aware of this draconian invasion into our public schools as noted in a front page article on March 10th in the Denver Post. Legislators have begun to talk about eliminating CSAP. Read the rest of the 3-16 editorial
Crisis in Education
We are all experiencing a crisis in education. CSAP testing has not only invaded our schools, but has relegated our children to pigeon holes, and turned teachers into technicians who struggle to see children as human beings and not test scores. We, the public, can take action and inform parents of the harms of this program, and their rights to exempt them from this testing program.
Crisis En La Educación
Experimentamos una crisis en la education pública. Las pruebas estandarizadas (CSAP) no solo han invadido a nuestras escuelas, sino también han despreciado a nuestros hijos, los han marginado, y han convertido a nuestros maestros a técnicos que luchan por ver a los hijos como hijos en vez de un resultado de un examen. Nosotros podemos tomar acción y informar a los padres de los prejuicios del programa, y sus derechos de eximir a sus hijos de este programa de pruebas.
New Information
We are hearing about the Denver Public Schools lately. We have been advised that they are considering pulling middle and high school students out of electives if the students opt out of CSAP. The students will be required to attend "remedial support classes". We'd like to hear more about this coercive action and we'd like to have you tell the administration what you think of it.
We've also been advised that teachers are being told not to bother with very poor performers and to concentrate on studnets who are on the dividing line between the categories. Tell us--and tell the administration--what you think of this.
Why We Oppose CSAP
Anti-CSAP Flyer (click here)
You may copy this flyer if you wish and distribute it. If you'd like copies, please look on the contact us page and contact Angela Engel.
Rep. Judy Solano, Brighton is attempting to draft legislation to reform NCLB. She describes the changes as follows. The idea is that school districts must notify parents that they have the option of opting their child out of CSAP and that if the student opts out, no punishing effect shall occur...no -0.5 score against the school or the child, no threats of retention, no marks on the permanent record, etc. etc. We will need lots of parents and teachers tr rally around. Please get the word out. Judy Solano
We suggest you write or call your representative and tell them to support this bill.
Memo to Teachers about CSAP
We just obtained this information from School District 6. This is their directive to their teachers. Please pay attention to what they plan to do if your child vomits during the test. We have added italics below.
Please read your manual carefully-you may want to highlight the parts you will say.
Please check the time expectations of each test and remember that you can have five-ten minutes beyond the time limit, if needed. I will give the test to studetns who you know will need more time to finish. (You must have 3 months of documentation to prove the students always need more time).
Please walk around the room as students test...ACTIVE PROCTORING. Do not allow students to get out of their seats, to talk, to write, or to draw when they have completed a test. Students may read or rest when they are finished.
Do not allow students to go on to the next test. They must stop at the stop sign. If they go on, we must take their book and give them an incomplete on the test they started.
If a student is obviously guessing or is totally frustrated while taking any test, please attach a sticky note on the front of the test booklet so I can take note of these behaviors. We cannot remove a student from the test setting without giving the student an incomplete.
If a student appears to be ready to throw up before the test begins, call me and the child may come to the Health office and may take the test at another time. If the child needs to throw up in the middle of the test, pull a trash can by his/her side, let them "do their thing", and encourage the child to finish the test. If we allow the child to leave the room, they may not finish the test at a later date.
You may NOT spell words for students.
You may NOT check students' tests to see if they have answered all questions.
You may NOT point to anything on a student's test booklet.
You may make blanket statements to the class like: "you have 10 minutes to complete the test" or "Please make sure you have answered every question". or "Please stay in the lines".
There is a new Beginning-Middle-End planning page for writing if tstudents want to use it. Also new, any plan must include words or a point will not be given for the plan.
Remind students to answer every question, to fill in ovals neatly and completely, and to answer short constructed response questions with 3 or more sentences. Paragraph questions on the writing test should be answered with at least 5 sentences.
Please make sure each test booklet is empty of sticky notes and math manipulative. (You may throw away math manipulatives). Please put the rough draft booklet (4th and 5th) in a separate pile in your test tub.
Remember I will do all of the bubbling (of names and information).
I will make a sweep through to help you check that all necessary "things" (word walls and charts) are covered in your rooms.
After each testing day, please return the tub to my office for safe keeping (and make sure all tests are in the tub).
I will write the parent letter.
The testing schedule is attached.
Please see me if you have any questions or concerns!
In addition to these protocols, teachers were told verbally that if any irregularities occurred in the classroom and were reported to the test coordinator, all the students in that classroom would receive a zero on the test. If the test coordinator failed to report these irregularities to the Department of Education, the scores of ALL the students in the entire school would be counted as a zero.
Testing Story
A teacher has told us that a student at her school got a nose bleed and bled on the test. She was ordered to copy the child's test over but refused, considering the blood a biohazard. The adminstrator insisted she do this, but she was adamant in her refusal. Later, she observed the adminstrator bubbling in the test while wearing latex gloves!