DENVER—A teachers group is backing a plan to get rid of the state’s standardized test for 10th graders and replace it with the ACT college entrance exam, telling lawmakers Thursday the state test is redundant and ineffective.
Tony Salazar, lobbyist for the Colorado Education Association, the union representing 38,000 teachers in Colorado, said the plan would save about $9 million a year that could be better used for programs to help struggling students and improve teacher training.
“This money will go to programs that help kids,” Salazar told the House Education Committee.
The committee approved House Bill 1357 on a 7-6 vote and sent it to the full House for debate.
The bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, said 10th-graders sometimes don’t try to perform well on the state tests or even sabotage their performance because colleges don’t consider the results. She said the ACT has higher stakes for students.
Vicki Newell, spokeswoman for the Colorado PTA, said some schools have to bribe students to take the state test.
The state Department of Education contradicted the $9 million savings estimate, telling lawmakers the bill could cost the state up to $250 million in federal funding in the first year.
State Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, said the state couldn’t afford to lose that money.
“Not only can Colorado not afford to lower the bar on education in Colorado, we cannot afford reckless legislation that takes away needed education dollars,” said Gardner, a member of the committee.
Gov. Bill Ritter and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are backing a separate education reform plan to toughen the rules for what students must learn and to overhaul the way the state tests them to make sure they’re progressing.
The proposal, which is still being drafted, lays out the groundwork for having the state’s kindergarten through 12th and higher education system set those standards and the best way to test whether they’re being met.
Ritter said the details would come later but insisted he won’t back away from rigorous standards or accountability measures.
“It’s a vision that assumes that every Colorado student has the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential,” Ritter said of his plan.
