Talk:Colorado Student Assessment Program

message: Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) is a test that is used to make sure each school in Colorado is learning the right curriculum. The test is based on the Colorado Standards that each school is supposed to teach each year. Though this is a good idea and has a good purpose, there are many flaws. First, the test is only to find how well the teachers can teach, not by what the individual student actually knows. They make every student in Colorado schools take a week out of their normal schedule and learning to take a test that will show how smart their school is and how good of teachers they have. This wouldn't be too bad of a conflict, if there were any reward for the student. When kids start CSAP they don't know exactly what or why they are taking, but once they get older and find there is nothing in it for them, some stop trying and caring, bringing their school down with them. The next flaw is that the test scores aren't accurate enough to see how well the school is doing. As I've stated above, some students will stop caring and do badly on their tests. Also, some kids are opted out of taking the test. Though these kids don't have to take the test, their scores go into the average. If you have too many students in a school not take it, your school's score will be much lower because the score of the students who didn't take it is zero. There is no way to keep parents from taking their kids out of this test, therefore some school's scores drop dramatically from this. Another thing that makes CSAP inaccurate is the preparation for the test. Though this test is designed to show what the teachers have taught the students throughout the year, most schools end up prepping the schools a few weeks before the big test. CSAP testing normally begins during mid March, but the schools start preparing the kids at the beginning of February. The teachers feel this is a big test for them and they aren't even able to be part of the scoring. It is only up to their students to show the government how well they teach. Because the teachers get nervous for this challenge, they start giving their students packets and other work that has everything the test should have on them. As it's supposed to be, most of the things that are taught during "prep time" is review. However, in some cases, the teachers have to make up for what they never taught the students. This being the case, the students aren't taught what they need to know throughout the year, but in only this minor frame before the tests begin. If there was, no preparation these tests may be a little more accurate and therefore their purpose would be much more grand.
I believe that the purpose for this test is a good idea. Everyone in the state of Colorado should be learning the same things and there should be a better way to measure what they students know and what the teachers are teaching. If the schools took this test more than once a year it would be a lot harder to prep the kids for. Therefore, the teachers couldn't deviate as much and teach what they are supposed to be teaching. If there were some reward for the students, maybe the students would try harder and would bring up the schools score. The main thing that brings the school down is the kids who don't take the test. This is not completely avoidable, yet there are some ways to lower the number of students who do this. If there was a reward for the students, even if it would only be a part of their grades the following year, maybe more children would want to take the tests and not want to be taken out. One of the reasons the students do not care about theses tests is that the scores aren't known until the following year. When six months goes by before you find out how you did on a test that does nothing to you or your grades, you can't care as much about how well you do. I think that CSAP testing should come more often, count as part of the students’ grades, and there should be tests for all subjects. In each subject offered in schools there are State Standards, but only the classes, English, math, reading, and science are tested. If each class had a test, each teacher would have to teach what they are supposed to, not just those few subjects. This would make it so the students learned everything they were supposed to, and would make it seem more fair to the teachers because they all had to worry about the tests and they would all have to stick to the curriculum. Between adding more tests, with more subjects, and adding some rewards for students, CSAP could be a more accurate test to find how smart the students of each Colorado are, and how well the teachers are teaching the standards. 67.130.165.69 07:26, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Flaws in CSAP 

message: As a student who went through the CSAP's, I feel that my education was substandard. In middle and high school, we spent months preparing for the test. Our teachers taught us how to take this stupid test instead of teaching skills that I would have liked to have improved before I came to college. I understand that CSAP is a result of the No Child Left Behind Act, which I also believe is flawed. Nevertheless, standarized testing has some value and is necessary to assess students. I do not believe that schools should be assesed based on CSAP's. It gives money to schools that are failing, and to schools that are excelling, but the majority of schools in between get screwed.Now i dont know who was writing this acticle  prior to me however i think there were no flaws in the way that we prepared for the csap. I dont know if you know this but if your school did well on csaps that state would give you more money for your program.
Butters7 21:03, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Flaws in CSAP 

message: An additional flaw of the CSAP process is the -0.5 penalty if a registered student does not take a CSAP test.  This is another feature of how the CSAP establishes accountability only upon a school and similarly imposes penalties.
One sign of controversy and protest of the CSAP is the "opt-out" movement.  This is the protest agenda that encourages parents to formally and officially declare that they will not allow their child to take the CSAP tests.
This procedure is typically marketed as a parental right.  In fact, this protest is only a penalty on the school that degrades the achievements of students who have completed the CSAP tests.
RHTrenary3 (talk) 18:42, 20 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  -0.5 Penalty for Not taking a CSAP 

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thread_title:  External links modified