The Montrose School District is sending a message to the state about mandatory testing, but it looks like it will be a largely symbolic move.
The school board passed a resolution requesting a five year waiver from state mandatory testing. The two tests they're concerned about are the CMAST (Colorado Measure of Academic Standards) and the PARK.
They’ve applied to be exempted from the tests, but the state has already told everyone that there will be no exemptions. The state’s not letting anyone get out of it.
"We disagree with that stance," says Superintendent Dr. Mark McHale, "we believe the current assessments as they are don't follow state statutes. We believe they overstep the boundaries of the state. They're well above the federal minimum, and our primary concern is they take away from important instruction time."
He says that will the tests right now, by the time a student went from third grade until a senior in high school, they would miss almost a year of education.
"We welcome accountability, but we also need the time to prepare kids for good learning, so they can be successful not only on tests, but in the other things we're preparing for them after school," he says.
McHale says that Montrose is also very different from the other school districts in the state. He says that they don’t have the technology and resources that Boulder or Grand Junction has, and that with the tests being online, it may be more of a judgment of the student’s computer literacy than their learning.
Whatever the reason, the recently released test scores don’t paint the district in a good light. As KVNF’s Laura Palmisano reported, an overwhelming majority of students tested were in the bottom two categories for science and social studies.
McHale says that this message will hopefully add to the push for changes to statewide testing, and soon.
