On April 20, 2023, Harry Feder, Executive Director of FairTest, submitted written testimony before the Colorado House Education Committee considering House Bill 23-1239, A BILL FOR AN ACT
CONCERNING MEASURES TO DEVELOP INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENTS THAT SUPPORT DEEPER LEARNING. The Bill would enable school districts to reduce testing in Colorado to the federal minimum and would encourage and support the development of local performance assessments to be scaled over time.
Feder argued that, “With the passage of this bill, Colorado would have the opportunity to be among the national leaders in moving educational assessments beyond off-the-shelf standardized tests that have impeded deeper learning, classroom inquiry and student engagement.”
He concluded: “Time is not the friend of students currently in the K-12 system. This is particularly true in under-resourced and marginalized schools and districts where this kind of innovation is most essential. They need the benefit of better assessment to foster critical thinking, deeper learning, and true content knowledge now.”
You can read the entirety of the testimony here:
https://fairtest.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Colorado-Committee-Testimony-2.pdf