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Coronavirus Update: Colorado Department Of Education Pauses CMAS Testing

March 17, 2020 / 5:05 PM MDT / CBS Colorado

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DENVER (CBS4)- The Colorado Department of Education will pause end-of-the-year assessments, including the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. The measure is to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Colorado schools.

(credit: CBS)

Denver Public Schools as well as other school districts in the Denver metro area and across Colorado have suspended all classroom learning in schools. Students are continuing remote-based learning during the school closure or extended spring break.

There are 160 cases of coronavirus in Colorado as of Monday afternoon.

"With the extraordinary actions we are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it's clear that we need to press pause on our CMAS tests this year, Commissioner Anthes said in a statement. Students and educators need to feel a sense of stability and normalcy before state tests can be administered and produce valid results. This also means we plan to pause our school and district state accountability system as it relates to state assessments for a year."

The Colorado Department of Education is working with The College Board to generate possible solutions for the administration of the PSAT and SAT tests.

"I'm a big fan of accountability and transparency in public education, but we will simply have to forgo incredibly useful data on student achievement for a year to help contain the virus," said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in a statement. "Right now, students, families, and educators need to be focused on doing everything they can to keep families safe and stable. It is clear that COVID-19 will put extraordinary stress on our education system for the coming weeks and months. In order to ensure our schools and educators are able to spend as much time as possible on online instruction in a difficult situation, I support the decision to pause assessments and school accountability for this year only."

"Making the decision to pause testing now allows schools and districts to concentrate on determining ways to deliver continued instruction to the extent they are able during this unprecedented disruption in education," Anthes said in a statement.