POINT/COUNTERPOINT: What do the 2023 CMAS test scores indicate? – Colorado Springs Gazette

The writers discuss what the latest Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) scores indicate for the state’s educational system.

Pont: Lisa Labriola

In the realm of education, progress is measured in small steps. Colorado recently published its CMAS (Colorado Measures of Academic Success) scores, and we saw a slight improvement. Though seemingly modest at first glance, it signifies a shift in the right direction for the state’s educational system.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on our children and their educational development.

The closure of schools and the shift to remote learning disrupted the normal learning process for many students.

Online learning presented challenges such as limited access to technology, lack of reliable internet connectivity and difficulties in adapting to virtual classrooms. This disruption led to learning loss and unequal educational opportunities, with some students struggling to keep up with their studies.

The pandemic also exposed and exacerbated existing educational inequalities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds faced greater challenges in accessing needs to participate in remote learning, such as computer or internet access. The CMAS scores clearly indicate this has further widened the achievement gap between students from differing socioeconomic backgrounds.

Though my counterpart has passionate opinions about public education, we cannot just eliminate our system. Whether personal or constitutional, we have a requirement to our public education system. Education is the foundation of a prosperous and successful society.

By investing in the education system, we are investing in the future of our state.

Like with any successful endeavor, investment is key. Recently, our governor and Legislature started discussions of fully funding our public education system for the first time in 14 years.

Yes, you read that correctly. Before feeling the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, our public education system hadn’t been fully funded since the great recession.

Though no system is perfect and evaluations and adjustments should always be done for improvement, these immense challenges our public education system have faced and grappled with to get our kids to where they need to be should be acknowledged.

Though a slight improvement in CMAS scores might not be cause for extravagant celebration, it is undeniably a step in the right direction.

It reflects the collective efforts of Colorado’s educational community and demonstrates the state’s commitment to providing quality education for all.

By celebrating this progress, we acknowledge the hard work of students, teachers, administrators and policymakers and inspire them to continue striving for even greater achievements.

Let us build on this positive momentum and work toward an educational system that empowers all students to reach their full potential.

Counterpoint: Sage Naumann

This year’s CMAS test scores show we’re closing the COVID gap, which is undoubtedly good news, but a return to mediocrity for our public schools is hardly cause for celebration.

COVID-19 isn’t why the majority of students cannot read, write, or do math at grade level. That’s unfortunately been the case for a long time in Colorado. It’s even worse when you look at students of color, such as Black students in Denver Public Schools, where just 27% of them are given the education to read or write at grade level. That percentage is even lower for Latino students, at 24%. If you’re wondering, 73% of White students are at or above grade level.

The calls for further “investment” into this broken system should be met with skepticism. According to the Common Sense Institute, we’re spending more than $16,000 per student, per year. For a class of 25, that’s more than $400,000. Where is that money going?

According to that same study, administrators have grown five times faster than the student population in recent years, and though per-pupil spending has increased by 50% since 2007, teacher salaries have only increased 30%.

Incremental reforms have been met with ferocious opposition from the government school employee union (i.e. teachers union) at every step of the way.

Anything that jeopardizes their iron grip on our education system (and its dollars) is off-limits. They’ve made news recently for taking a bold stand against capitalism and seeing one of their own members appointed to the legislature, state Rep. Tim Hernández, who has made quite a name for himself (see my last column on vacancy committees).

I want teachers to be paid more. I see no reason why a good teacher can’t make six figures with the dollars we spend on education. I want to see Black and Latino students given the same chance to succeed as their White (and Asian) counterparts. It’s absolutely unacceptable that three-fourths of these students are being failed by our system.

I want to see students given multiple career paths to choose from, not a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach that treats all students like devices to be programmed on an assembly line.

Our commitment shouldn’t be to antiquated institutions, but instead to the students of our state, and as of today, yesterday and the day before, we have failed to fulfill that commitment.

Lisa LaBriola is a principal at Husch Blackwell Strategies and was a Senate Democrat staffer for close to a decade. She served as chief of staff to former Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman and former Senate President Leroy Garcia. Opinions expressed here are her own and do not reflect the opinions of any other organizations. Sage Naumann is a conservative commentator and strategist. He operates Anthem Communications and was previously the spokesman for the Colorado Senate Republicans. Follow him on Twitter @SageNaumann.