State Testing Can Wait -- Learning Takes Priority

 As the spring approaches and anxiety about state standardized testing kicks into high gear while school boards object and the state drags its feet, my column for this week in The Villager unpacks the issue:

If you want kids to learn reading, writing, and math, then you regularly test to assess their knowledge and skills in those areas. That rationale came from President George W. Bush, following his partnership with Senator Ted Kennedy to pass the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. NCLB established a nationwide mandate of annual standardized testing for kids from third grade through high school. Annual state testing is now the norm, and we have come to accept it as a standard part of public education. However, the past year has been anything but normal, and the state of Colorado should suspend CMAS testing this spring.

In the midst of a health crisis ....