Testing, testing … (Denver Post file of PARCC practice).
Students walked out, , and for a variety of reasons, up to half of Colorado’s 11th grade students did not take the new standardized tests this spring.
by the Colorado Department of Education showed surprisingly low state-level participation rates, but a waiver request will try avoiding punishment for any school or district that doesn’t meet the U.S. Department of Education’s required 95 percent participation.
Colorado’s state Board of Education had stating they would not punish districts for low participation. That had put the state at odds with the federal government. An earlier version of a by the federal department in April.
State officials have been working with the federal department since then to find a compromise.
The matter is being addressed in a request for a renewal of a waiver that was . The waiver allows the state some flexibility from the No Child Left Behind law. Not complying with the conditions in the waiver, or with federal laws, could put federal funding for the state at risk.
In , given the all clear by the State Board of Education on Wednesday, the state will not use participation rates to lower a district’s or school’s accountability rating.
The ratings matter because, five years of failing ratings, mean the state should intervene to take over a school or district. The time frame has been paused, but is approaching its fifth year.
Instead, the state is proposing that districts and schools with low participation in their tests, will have to address how to improve those rates in improvement plans they already submit to the state.
And reviews written for low-performing districts and for schools serving a large number of low-income children will have to include the participation rate as one of the indicators of performance.
The state department is also committing to provide information to districts and schools that they can share with their families about how test results are used, and why they are administered.
Now the state will have to wait for a response from the U.S. Department of Education to see if this proposal is acceptable.
