The Rocky Mountain Collegian

No, we're not referring to the end-of-the-first-month exams all professors have simultaneously scheduled for this week. We're referring to Gov. Owens' adopted child, the Colorado Student Assessment Program.

Thousands of students in grades third through tenth will be feeling the love from legislators this week (Valentine's Day week) as they take the standardized tests, which will determine how much funding their schools receive. Beyond that, it will determine their teachers' performances.

Schools whose students consistently do poorly on the CSAP risk becoming charter schools. Teachers' jobs could be put in jeopardy. This is too much pressure to put on students for one test.

But, students are not the only ones who suffer. Teachers are also severely constrained by the CSAP. Instead of using their creativity to instruct their students, teachers must teach to a test to protect their jobs and their schools.

That's what happened in Texas.

In Texas, teachers and students are evaluated by the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Teachers spend class time preparing their students for this test, which detracts from time for other academic learning.

In addition, school districts spend millions of dollars on educational materials specifically for the TAAS - TAAS-related exercises, computer programs and workbooks to ensure students are prepared for the test. Whether students are prepared for higher education or the real world is another matter.

We can learn a lesson from Texas.

Putting too much emphasis on the results of one test - the CSAP - hurts students and teachers. Students lose individualized attention. Classrooms lose spontaneity. Teachers lose leeway in deciding what to teach and how to teach it.

And, schools lose teachers.

Many qualified teachers are refusing to administer the CSAP, are retiring or moving to other states to avoid administering the exam.

Schools are having a hard enough time recruiting good teachers without the constraints and pressures of the CSAP. How will the situation be in a few years?

Many CSU students plan on going into the noble field of education. They know they will be underpaid, under-appreciated and over-stressed, but they value the chance to use their special skills and talents to impart knowledge to the young minds with which they will be entrusted.

The CSAP will now tell them what to teach and how to teach it, leaving little room for them to improvise and use their experiences and personalities to inspire students.

And, the teachers will be judged by the results of this 'educating.'

In no other job are people's performances judged by evaluating others. Yet, that is precisely what the CSAP is doing to students and teachers.

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