The General Assembly kicks up its heels this month along with the National Western Stock Show. Both should offer some exciting bull rides.

Last General Assembly produced one interesting bill on K-12 public education. It’s HB25-1278 on the education accountability system. It offers an opportunity for long awaited solutions to festering problems that affect use of classroom time, testing integrity and money. We can hope for smart changes.

For decades, Colorado has relied on standardized tests produced by the United Kingdom-owned Pearson Company for grades 3-8 assessments. According to Colorado Department of Education (CDE) information, the tests are given in spring with a roughly three-week window for completion.

The grades 3-8 English language arts (ELA) and math tests consume about 1.5 teaching days in test-taking time and about a week, more or less, in preparation. Some districts extend the test taking time by spreading grades out over different days. These time estimates do not include less quantifiable elements like test-teaching within general curricula and time lost for students who opt out or miss test taking.

CDE gives little information related to the ultimate costs of the tests, a remarkable feat of opacity. Apparently, there’s a Pearson contract out to 2037 for $21 million annually. Chalkbeat reported in 2014 that estimated direct costs were somewhere around $5 to $50 per student, or $78 million. The price tag has certainly climbed well more than $100 million total since that decade.

More than money and student learning time are at stake. There’s the lack of accountability for this accountability. As noted in previous columns, the tests themselves are dubious, especially for low-income and English-language-learning students. Reading samples present a game of which answer “best” fits the question, when at least two answers can easily apply. Math word problems disadvantage non-English speakers, etc. Results for the tests taken in April don’t come out until summer. Students who took the grade-three tests are on their way to grade four. Teachers cannot benefit from insights because their students have moved on to other teachers or even other schools.

A core principle of the validity of these tests is participation rates, that is, how many actual students take the tests compared to the expected number. For schools and districts to receive accountability credit for participation, 95% of students must take the tests. Colorado law, however, allows students to opt out of the tests. If opt-out students receive opt-out permission from their parents via a note to their schools, they don’t have to take the tests, and their nonattendance doesn’t count against the 95% expected participation.

In a perturbing irony, districts with some of the lowest test performance numbers, and thus the lowest performance ratings, have some of the highest participation rates. Let’s take Sheridan School District with its 904 students as an example. The district abuts Littleton and a bit of Cherry Creek, Englewood and Jefferson County. Its demographics are as follows: 86% free-reduced lunch, 88% minority, 42% English language learners, and 15% special education. These figures exceed state percents by large amounts.

Sheridan schools and teachers produced a 98.7% participation rate (611 students out of 643) in 2025 on the ELA tests and a 98.9 participation rate (623 students out of 643) on its math tests. These numbers, by the state’s standards, are exceptional. Even so, the district is on the ropes with teachers protesting their pay and working conditions. State interventions to this point have not been sufficiently helpful. HB25-1278 requires more attention from CDE to low performing schools. One wonders, and certainly Sheridan teachers ponder, what “more attention” means.

CDE assigns a 99% participation rate to Littleton School District even though only 88.4% of its students took the ELA test and 89% took the math test in 2025. That is, out of 8,968 students expected to take the ELA exams, 7,927 did. The district is missing 1,041 students. Cherry Creek schools show a 98.7% participation rate in ELA and math. The numbers, however, show for ELA the actual participation rate was 78.4%, or 28,072 students out of 35,797 students, and 79.6% for math, or 28,457 students out of 35,798.

Out of 61,000 students in Douglas County schools, about 5,500 students are missing from both ELA and math tests. Brush RE-2J has more students than Sheridan but its results are insufficient data. Go figure.

With the Trump administration eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and slashing funds appropriated to our schools, a principal rationale for standardized testing is gutted. The previous threat hanging over districts and the state was a loss of federal money. Trump and CMAS supporters have lost that leverage.

HB25-1278 asks CDE to shorten tests. They can run as long as 90 minutes for squirmy elementary school students. The testing schedule should be reconceived, perhaps by alternating test years for ELA and math or the tests should be dumped altogether. Right now, the testing system is like walking through a Stock Show barn. Don’t look at the bottom of your boots. You won’t like what you see.

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