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DENVER (KDVR) — A cabinet of school workers, students and parents organized a car rally encouraging Denver Public Schools parents to opt students out of the Colorado Measures of Academic Success testing.

DPS Board Director Tay Anderson issued the call to educate parents on why standardized testing does more harm than good to students.  

The CMAS testing is intended to measure student readiness, aptitude and teacher performance and is administered to students in 3rd through 8th grades. However, with the current educational barriers students are facing during the pandemic, Anderson and the Community Cabinet state that results will not be accurately measured.  

Approximately 40% of students in DPS have remained in remote learning and will not be testing, further skewing any data. Out of 60% of students that are being forced to test, only 40% will be students of color, falsely representing the demographics of DPS in the CMAS data. 

Parents can opt their child out of testing by sending an email or calling their school’s principal any day before their student’s official testing date.

According to the DPS Board and DCTA Union, parents, teachers and students will not be punished for opting out and there will be “minimal impacts on district funding in DPS.”