Testing legislation: at last, a done deal

By Eric Gorski
The Denver Post

After a long and bumpy journey that began with marathon task force meetings last summer and lasted to the very last day of the 2015 legislative session, testing reduction legislation is headed to Gov. John Hickenlooper’s desk.

Despite a desire for more drastic changes from parent activists, the state’s biggest teachers union and some lawmakers on the far right and left, enough momentum existed to forge a compromise that would satisfy Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Hickenlooper made clear throughout the process he would not stand for anything that would cut testing to the point of undermining Colorado’s system for holding districts, schools and teachers accountable for student performance.

The time, energy and emotion that went into trying to unlock the issue was evident as lawmakers took their turns at the microphone with just hours to go in the session.

Senate President Bill Cadman said new and veteran lawmakers alike remarked that they had “never seen anything like this issue,” which he likened to kicking a hornet’s nest. Of the final result, he said: “Something magic happened here.”

Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, said even as recently as 20 hours earlier, he thought the fragile compromise would fall apart leaving the status quo for another year — a fear expressed by members from both parties throughout the process.

House Bill 1323 passed easily in both chambers — 30-5 in the Senate and 55-8 in the House.

The deal apparently spared lawmakers — and taxpayers — from a special session:

The legislation will:

— Trim reading and literacy tests for the youngest students, in kindergarten through third grade.

— Preserve 9th grade PARCC English and math tests, probably the biggest point of disagreement in the testing debate.

— Eliminate 11th and 12th-grade PARCC tests, and replace 10th grade PARCC tests with a shorter college-preparatory exam. Eleventh-graders would continue take the ACT or equivalent college readiness tests, which already is required by the state. The 10th and 11th grade tests wouold be put out to competitive bids every five years.

— Allow paper-and-pencil options instead of online tests. That decision would be made at the school level, not the district or parent level.

— Makes clear that parents and teachers have the right to opt out of tests and can’t be punished for doing so. Educators, schools and district still would be held accountable and face possible consequences (through performance reviews and accreditation, for instance) if opt-outs cause participation levels to plummet. Schools and districts will, however, get a one-year break from tests scores being used in the state’s accountability system.

— Establish a pilot program allowing districts to use alternative tests or develop their own if they are willing to pay for it — and if the state department of education signs off on it. This will require federal approval as well.

Separate legislation that won approval would pare back social studies tests, the target of protests at high schools last fall that helped heap attention on the issue. The tests now given to students in three grade levels every year will instead be given in just some schools in a sort of rotation, so a particular school would ideally give the tests every three years, not annually.

Ilana Spiegel, a parent representative on the task force that made recommendations to lawmakers, said she was pleased in the end even though — in her view — the actual reductions were minimal. She singled out the opt-out language as an important step.

“I see it being crystal clear who is listening to parents and educators and students and who is not – and that has become much more apparent to the public,” she said. “Parents and educators and students — people directly impacted by policy decisions, are going to have more influence on shaping these policy decisions.”

Some of the early reactions to Wednesday’s hard-won result …

Colorado lawmakers closing in on test reform compromise

By Eric Gorski
The Denver Post

POSTED:   05/04/2015

Lawmakers took a significant step toward compromise Monday on reducing and reforming standardized testing in Colorado, one of the most contentious and scrutinized issues of the legislative session.

The House and Senate education committees backed off from competing visions for testing reform advanced by each chamber and coalesced around a plan that borrowed something from both.

Most notably, the blueprint gives wide berth to districts that wish to develop their own alternative assessments — a victory to those who oppose Colorado’s place in a multistate testing effort called PARCC.

At the same time, the legislation would retain mandatory testing of ninth-graders in math and English, a major point of disagreement between education reformers and anti-testing forces.

“I think we are really close to an agreement because no one’s happy,” said Rep. Jim Wilson, R-Salida.

The middle ground is spelled out in a lengthy amendment to major testing reduction bills that passed out of both chambers last week.

The amended Senate bill easily cleared the Democratic-controlled House Education Committee, 9-2. The amended House bill had a rougher time in the Republican-majority Senate Education Committee, going through 5-4, with some on the losing side fuming at the House.

The House late Monday night gave preliminary approval to the Senate testing overhaul bill, SB 257, but not before caucusing to work though confusion and differences.

The bill was amended to break the local option pilot piece into two phases, with the first one allowing districts to “start small” with a limited number of grades or subjects tested. The second piece would empower the state Board of Education to anoint those “most likely to become the next state assessment” — potentially replacing PARCC.

The Senate is expected to take up the House version, HB 1323, on Tuesday. The issue may land in conference committee before the session ends Wednesday; it isn’t clear which of the bills will become the main vehicle for an overhaul.

The framework of a deal was forged because enough support existed to curtail testing in a way palatable to Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who had held two press conferences — one featuring two former governors — to pledge his allegiance to Colorado-style education reform.

The legislation retains what had already been agreed upon: streamlined reading and literacy tests for the youngest students and no state tests for 12th-graders. The bills advanced Monday also would:

• Retain mandatory state English and math tests in ninth grade. Critics sensed an opportunity to eliminate tests that are not federally required, but others argued it would leave a hole in the state’s accountability system and provide an incomplete picture.

• Tenth-grade PARCC tests in English and math would be replaced with a shorter test called ACT Aspire — the bill doesn’t use the name of the actual product — that prepares students for the college entrance exam required by Colorado law. That would address one criticism of the status quo: that high school students have no reason to care.

• Any district or band of districts could propose pilot programs to develop their own tests, subject to approval by the state Department of Education. The districts would shoulder the costs. The original House Bill had a much narrower local test option. This opens it to all.

• Schools would need to spell out procedures for opting out of state tests, and parents and students could not be penalized for doing so. Last week, the House Education Committee killed a separate bill that would “hold harmless” teachers, districts and schools for opt-outs.

School reform advocates testified against the local option, arguing it could result in a patchwork of exams from any district — high-performing and low — with no guarantee of comparability.

The pilot program would amount to “changing the rules at halftime” for educators getting used to PARCC and initially require students to take both local tests and PARCC, said Chelsea Henkel, of the advocacy group Stand for Children.

On the other side of the spectrum, Colorado Education Association president Kerrie Dallman said the teachers union wants testing reduced further and teachers not punished for high opt-outs. Teachers’ evaluations can be impacted by large numbers of no-shows.

Rep. Millie Hamner, D-Dillon, said the compromise is “trying to strike that right balance” and “thread the needle just right.”