Dear Mr. Fisch,
I read your "CSAP is dead" blog and it intrigued me because of the fact that it addresses which was that the name is changing. Personally I disagree with the standardized testing methods such as CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program) and MAPS (Measures of Academic Progress) because they are designed to show what a student has learned over the school year but the students stress about it and the test officially becomes busy work. I was in third grade when CSAP started and even then it was an insanely stressful situation. Now I’m in high school and I’ve done it so many times that it feels like busy work. I don’t feel that the standardized testing helps me at school much at all. The fact that they’re changing the name doesn’t change that most students don’t try very hard on the test because it doesn’t affect our grade. I know that what I just said was that we as students don’t try hard unless the grades are at risk, but it’s completely true. The Standardized testing doesn’t affect a student academically; therefore it doesn’t affect the mindset of an average student. (Average being the typical “my grades kind of matter, but I still won’t do my homework). The point is that the name can change but the process is still the same and it will have the same affect on students as TCAP as it did on CSAP. Unless provided a motivation that isn’t completely school related, the test is dead anyway and the students grade on the test will gradually decline.
