A third-grade student looks at a mock CSAP test at Stedman Elementary School in Denver on Feb. 1, 2010. (Denver Post file)
Re: “Snow job on testing in Colorado,” March 8 guest commentary.
In his guest commentary, Michael Vaughn looks only superficially at the testing game in Colorado. Before No Child Left Behind, school districts were more in control of the content of their curriculum. The problem was that, many times, the standardized tests covered little of what was being taught in classes. With No Child Left Behind, school districts began changing their curriculums to better match the tests. To make sure teachers were following timelines, many principals started requiring teachers to administer weekly (and sometimes daily) assessments to students.
Vaughn does not take into account all of these teacher-made tests geared toward the standardized tests. Multiply this by the number of subjects a student takes and you have a great deal of testing time. It takes not only a lot of student time, but also a huge amount of teacher time.
Gary Montijo,Lakewood
This letter was published in the March 15 edition.
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