Two events converge in Colorado’s K-12 education world: the Trump administration is dissolving the Department of Education and the legislature is re-doing the state’s education accountability system. With President Donald Trump’s action, federal mandates related to standardized testing and federal education program funding are up in the air, if not yet up in smoke.

The loss of federal funds may be a challenge, but the freedom to develop our own intelligent, well-constructed education accountability system is a gift the legislature should embrace. Now all good things are possible, meaning the constraints imposed by No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds Act can be thrown off.

A review of HB25-1278, Education Accountability System, is in order. This bill is currently in the state House of Representatives and will be acted on soon. The question about the legislation is not to the merits of the bill but to the timing. Sponsors didn’t know when the bill was drafted federal education supports would be turned topsy-turvy. Now that the U.S. Department of Education is in complete turmoil, it’s possible to think afresh about what will best serve our state’s students.

These policies currently control Colorado’s public education accountability. The Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) tests are administered once a year to grades 3 through 8 in reading, math and science. The tests are delivered in spring. At least a month of the school year remains after the testing period, and test results aren’t available until the summer. The results are not put forward to the public until the fall and aren’t finalized until early the next year. The untimeliness of test results negatively affects any benefits.

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Parents and students, let alone teachers on the front line, understand this standardized testing system is not ideal. Participation rate data from 2019 to 2024, based on Colorado Department of Education (CDE) sources, show fewer and fewer students take the tests from year to year and grade to grade. Third-grade participation in the English Language Assessment (ELA) in 2019 was 96.7%. By 2024, participation dropped to 92.3%. ELA participation in eighth grade in 2019 was 88.7%. By 2024, participation dropped to 78.5%. Students and their parents are voting with their feet. Average participation rates in math are similar.

One initiative of HB25-1278 is to have schools do more to get parents make their children take the tests. That idea goes in the wrong direction. The bill requires tests should be more adapted in length to student grade level and “chunked” differently. But standardized tests given once a year, well before the year is over, with results well after the school year is past, are inherently unproductive.

The tests, however, are highly predictive of achievement by income. They show, year after year, there is a gap in academic “performance” in both reading and math between white students and low-income students. The gap may go up or down slightly, but it does not substantially change. The CMAS tests have not produced a beneficial effect to reduce achievement gaps.

The school performance rating system that classifies school districts as “distinction,” “accredited,” “accredited with improvement plan,” “accredited with priority improvement plan,” or “turnaround” has not reduced this achievement gap a bit either. Interventions from CDE have not reduced this achievement gap. Private school management enterprises hired by charter schools, innovation networks, or required by CDE to support district-led schools have not reduced the gap.

Keeping teacher salaries below their peers in 45 other states has not reduced the achievement gap. Building a $10 billion-plus IOU to school districts more than 15 years has not reduced the achievement gap. Insufficient funding and support for English Language Learning programs has not reduced the achievement gap.

The entire current accountability system, including its standardized testing program, only perpetuates the status quo, which for free-and-reduced-lunch students, English Language Learners and special education students is not good enough.

A third event has converged on K-12 accountability. The state’s budget is under water by $1 billion. It’s unclear as of now to what extent K-12 public schools will take a shave. Some of the trim could be reduced by eliminating standardized testing at least until the budget situation stabilizes. It may be too late this year to cut the tests, but legislators should stop the tests for the 2025-2026 school year and forward. Legislators should immediately pull together a team of experts, without political agendas, to present policies for redesigning school accountability.

The team of K-12 education experts should find and recommend successful teacher evaluation systems. They should review alternative assessment programs already piloted in the state to determine what works best in the various geographic and economic circumstances of school districts. They should analyze adequacy school finance studies to restructure Colorado’s distribution of funds with the goal of putting dollars where they can have the greatest positive impact.

Now is the time to stop current accountability legislation. Now is the time to start to make changes in accountability that will actually improve K-12 education for all students in the state for decades to come.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.