Date: 04/20/2015
Final
Witness Testimony HBs 15-1105, 1123, 1125, 1208
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
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02:33 PM -- Witness Testimony House Bills 15-1105, 1123, 1125, 1208
Representative Pettersen explained that she would be taking testimony on all bills together, that each witness could take only one turn, that testimony would be limited to three minutes, and questions limited to five minutes.
The following people testified:
02:36 PM -- Leslie Colwell, representing the Colorado Children's Campaign, spoke in opposition to House Bill 15-1105. She spoke about her organization and its reasons for opposing the bill. She spoke about the needs of educators and students. Ms. Colwell responded to questions from the committee.
02:42 PM -- Luke Ragland, representing Colorado Succeeds, spoke in opposition to all four bills. He spoke about his experience on the task force created by House Bill 14-1202 and about the need for a reliable gauge of performance. Mr. Ragland responded to questions from the committee.
02:51 PM -- Alex Strong, representing herself as a student at University of Colorado Boulder, spoke in opposition to House Bill 15-1208. She spoke about the need for a shared set of standards across states. She spoke about learning objectives analyses conducted by WestEd, comparing the Common Core-based standards to Colorado's previous standards. She suggested viable alternatives listed in the HB 14-1202 task force report. Ms. Strong responded to questions from the committee.
02:55 PM -- Chelsea Henkel, representing Stand for Children Colorado, spoke in opposition to all four bills. She spoke about the needs of Colorado's students. She discussed provisions of HB15-1105. Ms. Henkel responded to questions from the committee.
03:04 PM -- Catherine Bullock, representing herself, spoke in support of the bills. She spoke about variables and the increasing amount of testing and the invalidity of results. She spoke about testing at the high school level, and the importance of testing by course, not by grade because of the disruptions to students of other ages and grades. Ms. Bullock responded to questions from the committee.
03:10 PM -- Jake Arredondo, representing himself, spoke in support of the bills. He described his personal experiences as a junior in high school. He spoke about standardized testing and how it interferes with preparation for the Advanced Placement exams. He compared Colorado's educational system to that of Finland. He spoke about students' needs. Mr. Arredondo responded to questions from the committee.
03:19 PM -- Bethany Drosendahl, representing herself, spoke in support of the bills. She spoke about her personal experiences as the dissenting opinion on the House Bill 14-1202 task force. She discussed the public input received by the task force. Ms. Drosendahl responded to questions from the committee.
03:22 PM -- Cheri Kiesecker, representing herself, spoke in support of the bills. She spoke about overtesting and the opt-out movement. She spoke about the importance of moving to federal minimum testing levels in order to halt the opt-out movement.
03:25 PM -- Jillian Moster, representing herself, spoke in support of the bills. She spoke about misrepresentation of the angry moms. She spoke about the lack of participation by economically disadvantaged moms. She spoke about the few states remaining in the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) Consortium. She spoke about her preference for locally-created tests.
03:29 PM
The preceding two witnesses responded to questions from the committee.
03:32 PM -- Paul Gault, representing himself, spoke in support of the bills. He spoke about his experience as a network administrator and in the Air Force. He described his children. He talked about the reasons why he supports the bills. He spoke about the money spent on standardized testing and about the requirements of Senate Bill 10-191. He described money received from the federal government and about the wasted resources spent on testing. Mr. Gault responded to questions from the committee.
03:38 PM -- Lily Tang Williams, representing herself, spoke in support of the bills. She described her personal experiences in the communist educational system in China. Ms. Williams responded to questions from the committee.
03:45 PM -- Bill Baldaccini, representing himself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. He spoke about his military service and about American history. Mr. Baldaccini responded to questions from the committee. He read a statement from Joe Annello, who could not attend the meeting.
03:55 PM -- Val Flores, representing herself as a member of the State Board of Education, spoke in support of the bills. She described testing during her childhood and the difference between her experiences and the current testing regimen. She described the challenges facing working families and how expectations of schools have changed. She discussed the racist history of testing and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and posited that no additional testing is needed. Dr. Flores responded to questions from the committee.
04:07 PM -- Sandra Lundberg, representing herself, spoke in support of the bills. She described her personal experiences choosing her children's school and curriculum. She explained her fears that the nation's history is being rewritten. She described the disruption to children's school days because of computer-based testing. She described her fears of the Common Core State Standards.
04:11 PM -- Keith King, representing himself as the President of the Colorado Springs City Council, spoke in support of HB 15-1125. He described his experiences as a legislator and his work on creating the growth model. He described his work with Colorado Early Colleges and discussed the whys and wherefores of testing. He stated that testing should only be used if it has a practical outcome. He urged the committee to consider allowing districts to choose their own assessments. Senator King responded to questions from the committee.
04:20 PM -- Anita Stapleton, representing herself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. She described PARCC as illegal and said that it would cost the state a great deal of money. She described the steps Colorado would need to take in order to leave the consortium and compared PARCC and Common Core to programs in Nazi Germany. She described the costs of testing in Colorado Springs, and discussed handouts to the committee (Attachment C). Ms. Stapleton responded to questions from the committee.
15HouseEd0420AttachC.pdf
04:31 PM -- Skylar Tom, representing himself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. He spoke in Chinese, and Lily Tang Williams translated. He spoke about immigrating to the United States earlier in the month. He described his fears of school in Colorado becoming like schools in China. He described the rigor of the schools in China and the amount of standardized testing there.
04:35 PM -- Colby Stapleton, representing himself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. He described his opposition to Common Core State Standards and PARCC testing. Mr. Stapleton responded to questions from the committee.
04:39 PM -- Michael Stapleton, representing himself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. He described his role as a parent and the reasons he feels so strongly. He described his involvement in the legislative process and how special interests have taken over the process while legislators ignore parents.
04:41 PM -- Tammy Holland, representing herself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. She described her son's experiences. She talked about psychosocial profiling and government uses of data to determine which children will attend college. She said that children who take the tests are slaves to a vicious master. Ms. Holland responded to questions from the committee.
04:47 PM -- Mark McPherson, representing himself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. He described children being placed in a box. He described his children's experiences with standards and testing.
04:51 PM -- Rosina Kovar, representing herself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. She described a video that describes standards as being aimed to produce a global workforce. She spoke about her grandchildren and the decision to opt them out of statewide assessments.
04:54 PM -- Sarah Sampayo, representing herself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. She described questions on the PARCC exam relating to students' family members. She said that PARCC tests measure values and beliefs, contrary to United States Department of Education policy. She described her suspicions that no public body within Colorado has oversight of the tests. She described inappropriate questions and how Pearson uses the veil of secrecy to corrupt children. She asked the committee members to protect children and get Colorado out of the PARCC Consortium. Ms. Sampayo responded to questions from the committee.
05:03 PM -- Carole Morenz, representing herself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. She described her personal experiences as a teacher. She stated that the PARCC tests are neither valid nor reliable. She talked about math tests in which calculators are used, so that students will not learn math. She said the tests discriminate against boys, English-language learner students, and economically disadvantaged students who do not hear proper English in school or at home. She described the tests' reliance on writing to do well in math and the hiring of hourly low-wage workers to score PARCC exams.
05:07 PM -- Steve Durham, representing himself as a member of the State Board of Education, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. He spoke about norming to national standards, a lack of control over the PARCC tests, and how people who wish to complain about the content of the tests have nowhere to go. He described high schools going on half-day schedules during the testing window. He spoke about results not being delivered in a timely manner so that the information cannot be used by teachers. Mr. Durham responded to questions from the committee.
05:21 PM -- Jennifer Mello, representing the Colorado Department of Education, came to the table to respond to questions from the committee regarding pop-up questions.
05:25 PM -- Battmann Edward Ford, representing himself, spoke in support of HB 15-1208. He spoke about his personal experiences as a child with testing.
05:26 PM -- No further witnesses being present, Representative Pettersen closed public testimony.