President’s call to limit standardized testing has little impact in Colorado

President Barack Obama is calling for a limit on standardized testing, but the limit wouldn’t have much impact in Colorado.

In a weekly video address on Facebook, the president said he has heard from parents and teachers concerned about the amount of standardized testing. He said he asked the Department of Education to work with states and districts to make sure tests used in the classroom are tests that are worth testing, tests that don’t take too much classroom time and that they should be just one source of information.

Standardized testing has been a heated topic in southern Colorado. Earlier this year, teachers in Pueblo wore black to protest the new PARCC standardized test. They said they were mourning the “loss of teaching and learning.” And last year, School District 11 tried to opt out of state-mandated testing.

President Obama suggested testing take up no more than 2 percent of classroom time. According to the Colorado Department of Education, that would equal to about 21 hours of classroom time in the state. A spokesperson said the number of hours spent on testing in Colorado is well below that.

The department has data showing the number of hours spent on testing for grades three through nine. Grades seven and eight show the most amount of standardized testing classroom time, with 13.16 hours.