Just over a month ago, the task force created by the legislature to study how to improve testing requirements for Colorado’s students issued its recommendations.
This task force was made of 15-members including parents, education experts and business leaders who spent over 50 hours deliberating and received more than 750 comments and feedback from Coloradans across the state including those at work in the Capitol. This task force took its work seriously and engaged many others. And we found that in many ways the standards and assessments task force echoed our thoughts in its recommendations.
The task force was very clear that while we should limit testing, we must focus on the needs of colleges and employers, because this is our future workforce. The task force came to the conclusion that we must have high standards to ensure we ready our kids for their futures and meet the demand for skilled workers. We know that in just five years we need 74 percent of people who work in Colorado to have some education beyond high school—from learning a trade to getting a degree. As a matter of fact, our economy will have the highest need for workers with a post-secondary education (tied with Minnesota) in the U.S.
Yet in this session we are seeing a number of bills that are contrary to the conclusion not only this task force came to, but also to agreements we have come to as a business community that are strongly supported by a diverse coalition we are part of (including A+ Denver, the Colorado Competitive Council, Colorado Concern, Colorado Forum, the Colorado League of Charter Schools, Colorado Succeeds, Democrats for Education Reform and Stand for Children Colorado).
The conclusion we all came to is that high standards and strong assessments are critical to meeting our workforce needs.
So as you can predict, we are in opposition to any bills that would remove those high standards—including House bills 1105, 1123, 1125 and 1208 and Senate Bill 191. These bills aim to do away with holding teachers accountable through student growth, high academic standards and tools to benchmark student progress.
We know that to have an effective and accountable education system, we must have statewide learning standards that allow us to compare our schools across the state, across the nation and even throughout the world. These assessments must focus on the outcomes we expect from schools (strong problem-solving skills, communication skills and critical thinking) while allowing flexibility for each local school district to determine the best course to ensure their students are able to achieve these standards of success.
Kelly Brough is the president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
[Photo by r. nial bradshaw]