CSAP and Educational Accountability
Coming up next spring is the fourth annual Colorado Student Assessment Program (commonly referred to as CSAP) exams, which test students on standards-based criteria in math, science, reading and writing. Highly publicized and widely debated, the CSAP has not exactly been taking the back seat to other educational issues. In fact, it is has been and still remains the educational issue in the state, dividing teachers, administrators, state legislators and even the governor as to what function the CSAP should serve in public schools. It started as rallying cry from Gov. Bill Owens-his answer to the critics who said not enough was being done to adequately reform education within the state. For the past ten years, the country has been undergoing a radical change in education reform. Standards have been implemented in every public school system to make sure students are learning and performing at the levels expected of them and their respective grade levels. Owens saw this as not being enough, so he implemented the CSAP along with its penalties for under-performing schools, and rewards for high-achieving ones. To explain these penalties and rewards, the assessment system must be touched on first.
This type of rating system only aids in skewing the public perception of schools based on the CSAP exam. However, behind this increase in performance lies a brutal reality that many teachers are agreeing with: The CSAP sets up students for failure on the annual exam. In fourth grade reading results on the CSAP in Denver, 75% of students in low-poverty schools are reading at grade level, while in high-poverty schools, where more than three-fourths of students qualify for lunch aid, just 27% of students are proficient readers, or reading at grade level. "I would say about 20% of the questions on the real exam have nothing to do with what we practiced leading up to the test, so why do they give us the preparation packets to begin with?" Reseigh's frustration can be seen and heard in a wide range of teachers throughout the state. In some cases, as Beth Celva, director of assessment and testing for DPS, suggests, "If you take away the creativity of a teacher, you take away the learning of a student" (Ryckman E5). In the case of some teachers in Colorado who are preparing students for the CSAP, the focus is on reading, writing, math and science. One problem with standards is they are being laid down by a state legislature whose members have not been directly involved in education anytime in the recent past, according to Celva (Ryckman E5). But this is as good as it gets for the CSAP. When different schools' demographics are accounted for or when the amount of non English-speaking students are counted in a school in a school, it can be better realized that this may not be the answer to our educational reform questions. Newspapers and newscasts have held the CSAP as the focus of several pieces of journalism-a lot of them trying to explain the many facets of the program and its exams. Teachers who have to prepare students for the CSAP are given packets providing sample test questions, preparation ideas, and other suggestions to aide in students' success on the exam. Students who want to learn all the standards will be in their core academic classes (English, math, science, social studies) seven periods a day, and because of this, little time can be spent studying other subjects in a student's area of interest. Rote memorization is being implemented to instill the basics of writing and science, while math and reading are given particularly heavy attention as teachers constantly drill students in math facts and reading comprehension. They show state legislators are not content with the current quality of education, and are trying desperately to do something about it.
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Acceptance Essays
