CSAP A Big NO

Today I will be writing a letter to my son’s school opting him out of the state assessment test, The CSAP.

I realize that I am part of the silent minority on this issue, but I’d like to be heard. Finding any sort of support or group of people that feel the way my husband and I do is near impossible. Mainly because most people are blindly accepting the CSAP as a way to make schools “accountable”

I would like to outline my reasons for not allowing my son to take the test. First and foremost among the reasons is the fact that my son does not exist for the school’s benefit; the school exists for my son’s benefit.

My son gains absolutely no benefit by taking this test. The results cannot be used to assess my son on the level he is currently, because the results don’t come back in time to make any personal adjustments for my son. If there were a test that was taken at the beginning of the year and then repeated at the end to measure his progress, that would be a different ball of wax. But that is not the case.

Another reason for opting out is that the anxiety suffered by the children and the emphasis or “teaching to the test” aspect. The pressure for children to pass is very high and the children are being forced to think and literally write inside the box. Emphasis placed on how to take the test, takes away from my son’s learning time. Not to mention the emphasis on “core” subjects that are featured on the test to the neglect of subjects such as Civics, Music, Foreign Language, and most importantly Physical Education.

Other reasons include the fact that the CSAP’s connection to NCLB takes control of my child’s education out of a local level and to the Federal level…with no funding from the Federal level for these initiatives. It costs between 14 and 17 million dollars for the state of Colorado to fund the CSAP. That is taking a great deal of money away from more important school issues, like music education, physical education and school lunch programs, or even higher teacher pay.

The letter went out into the mail this morning, so we should be hearing something soon. Because based on what I’ve heard of the principal, she won’t let this go at a letter.

In conclusion, I’d like to keep the idea and my options open on this issue. I’m not quite clear on how I’m going to follow through with this yet as there does not seem to be a group yet, of parents like me in this area. So, if you read this and are part of District 51 in Colorado, give me a holla'!