Governor Jared Polis signed into law a bill that would suspend statewide testing for certain grades, according to a statement released by the Colorado General Assembly.
"The bill suspends the administration of state assessments," for the 2020-21 school year for these subjects and grade levels:
- Science for students enrolled in grades 5, 8, and 11
- Math for students enrolled in grades 3, 5, and 7; and
- English language arts for students enrolled in grades 4, 6, and 8
However, the bill still needs a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education before it is official, reports 9NEWS.
Denver parents have been speaking out against standardized testing, also known as the CMAS, during a turbulent year for education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Colorado Education Association (CEA) also advocated for legislatures to apply for a federal waiver to cancel standardized testing this year.
"Let's not disrupt student learning any more than it has been," said Amie Baca-Ohlert, president of the CEA. "All the feedback we’re hearing from parents is that they don’t want this for their kid this year. We have other ways of measuring other students' success; let’s do that and let our kids just get through this year as best as they can."
The bill also sees that the Colorado Department of Education cannot use this year to measure a teacher's performance and schools on performance watch can omit assessments for the 2020-21 school year.
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