20+ Pikes Peak school Superintendents ask Colorado officials to suspend this year’s standardized testing

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- In a letter to Governor Jared Polis and the Colorado Board of Education, around 26 Pikes Peak Region school Superindentents have asked Colorado officials to halt standardized testing amid COVID-19.

The school districts in total, which add up to more than 100,000 students in the Pikes Peak Region, suggest that state-required assessments, like literacy screeners, kindergarten readiness, and WIDA access are "counterproductive during the current health crisis."

As a result, the Superintendents recommend that they be canceled or made optional this year. The one exception to that consensus is the PSAT/SAT sequence, which they recommend as planned.

Cited concerns include that the schools "cannot provide fair and uniform testing conditions across in-person, hybrid, and online learning populations."

The letter also states that "the timing of the CMAS assessments and the lag of available results mean that CMAS results will not add value to our efforts to compensate for COVID-related learning disruptions."

Also, the letter says that the time preparing and administering CMAS would be better invested by teachers for support and direct student instruction, and also that "social distancing requirements make it logistically difficult or impossible to assess whole classes of students at the same time or in the same place."

Pikes Peak Superitendents that have signed the letter include:

J. Thomas Gregory, Academy School District 20
Steve Wilson, Big Sandy Schools 100J
Lisa Yates, Buena Vista School District
Dave Slothower, Calhan School District
Geroge Welsh, Cañon City Schools
Dr. Walt Cooper, Cheyenne Mountain School District 12
Dr. Michael Thomas, Colorado Springs School District 11
Dr. Nancy Benham, Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind
Miriam Mondragon, Cripple Creek-Victor School District
Paul Frank, Edison School Schools District 54JT
Kelli Thompson, Elbert 200
Douglas Bissonette, Elizabeth Schools
Chris Smith, Ellicott 22
Dr. Keith Owen, Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8
Dr. Brenda Krage, Fremont Re-2
Tim McNerney, Hanover School District 28
Dr. Wendy Birhanzel and John Rogerson, Harrison District 2
Scott Mader, Kiowa School District C-2
Dr. KC Somers, Lewis-Palmer School District 38
Dr. Elizabeth Domangue, Manitou Springs District 14
Dwight Barnes, Miami-Yoder JT60
Timothy Kistler, Peyton School District 23 Jt
Pat Bershinsky, Pikes Peak BOCES
Peter Hilts, School District 49
Scott Campbell, Widefield School District 3
Steve Woolf, Woodland Park School District

The Pikes Peak Superintendents encourage the Colorado Department of Education, and other interested parties, like that Colorado Legislature, the Governor and State Board of Education's quick decision to relieve students and educations anxieties about 2021 assessment plans.

Jeremy Meyer, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Education, says that the decision will have to be made by the state legislature. He adds, "a stakeholder group has been meeting for months to discuss recommendations to make to the legislature regarding the assessments, accountability and educator effectiveness."