CSAPed Again and Again

Today is the fourth morning that we have administered the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests. We will have spent a minimum of 18 hours and untold staff time administering those exams. For the investment, there ought to be a reasonably profound payoff. I haven't seen it.

Teaching to those tests has hindered, not helped educational quality. And if I were a parent, I wouldn't tolerate the logic of the tests that dictates that time and effort be spent with students who are very close to scoring proficient. To heck with the advanced and disadvantaged students. It is just too much of a game of statistics and shuffle the numbers to be a useful reform tool. It more or less leads to blaming the victims.

I honestly resent the time and effort that I must put into this bureaucratic engineering of education. Perhaps some common sense is slowly creeping back into the whole issue, with proposed bills to allow parents to opt out their children without punishing the school (opt out students are counted as a "0", unsatisfactory); and a bill to allow districts to have other options for schools other than charter converstion. An anti-CSAP group has also been gaining members and recognition, at least sparking a debate over the nature and benefits of the testing.

I do know one group that benefits handily from CSAP, the testing companies. CBT/McGraw-Hill has the current contract with the state and at last read was receiving about $15 million yearly for the testing. Again, worth it?

Show me please how education, and not just test scores, are (or even could be) improving.