Senate panel votes down plan to drop CSAPs

DENVER - The CSAP exams have won a stay of execution, although much of the state's student assessment program is probably living on borrowed time.

An attempt to eliminate CSAPs for high school students and the CSAP writing test taken by students in grades three through 10 failed Monday when a watered down bill was voted down in the Senate Education Committee.

The measure, introduced by Rep. Judy Solano, D-Brighton, rivaled Gov. Bill Ritter's education reform plan, which will likely end the CSAP program for high school students within three years. Ritter's plan has won wide bipartisan support, in part because the CSAPs would be replaced with new standardized exams for high school students, most likely a battery of college entrance exams. The Legislature will probably send Ritter's plan to his desk for approval today.

Solano's bill, HB1357, would have scrapped every required exam for high schoolers except the ACT college entrance test, which all juniors take.

Only Democrats supported HB1357 when it was passed by the House last week, and it took the defection of a Senate Democrat to kill it in committee.

By that point, Senate sponsor Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora, had stripped the bill of its provisions pertaining to ending all CSAPs for high school students. The amended version only would have ended the CSAP writing exam.

Writing tests would still have been required, but school districts would have been asked to create their own assessment programs.

Under the current CSAP writing exams, students' writing samples go to graders out of the state. Teachers never see the students' work, and only a numerical score is returned, Williams said.

"There's no connection with what you're doing in the classroom," she said.

The writing test may still be in for a radical overhaul. Under Ritter's plan, the department of education and commission on higher education would rewrite the content standards and testing procedures.

The plan that died Monday would also have redirected $5 million to teacher training and programs to reduce the number of dropouts.

Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, acknowledged he voted against Williams' bill with the governors' plan in mind.

"I didn't think it made sense to do away with them (CSAPs) while at the same time talking about a major change," he said.

Another controversial education measure died Monday when the House Education Committee killed on a party-line vote a bill that would have required students to show English proficiency before they graduate. The Senate had voted 34-1 in favor of the measure.

Similar language mandating English proficiency has been incorporated into the governor's plan.