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Colorado students will spend less time taking state standardized math and science tests in the spring, the Colorado Department of Education announced Monday.
The change is a response to concerns from parents, educators, and state lawmakers that Colorado’s tests for students in grades 3 through 8 are too burdensome, even after previous efforts to reduce the hours allotted for testing.
The state isn’t cutting any questions from the tests, known as the Colorado Measure of Academic Success, or CMAS. Instead, students will have less time to take the tests, a decision officials said was based on data that showed most students weren’t using all of the testing time.
“Students didn’t need as much time as they were given, so there were places where we could make cuts,” Christina Wirth-Hawkins, the state education department’s chief assessment officer, told the State Board of Education at a recent meeting.
Each spring, Colorado tests students in grades 3 through 8 in math and literacy, which includes reading and writing. Students in grades 5 and 8 are also tested in science.
In 2027, testing time for students in grades 3, 4, 6, and 7 will shrink by 45 minutes, from seven hours and 45 minutes to seven hours. Testing time for students in grades 5 and 8 will shrink by an hour and a half, from 11 hours to nine and a half hours.
The state will also require fewer testing sessions. At schools that hold one testing session per day, that will mean fewer days of testing in spring 2027.
“The hope is that ultimately it will reduce (the) burden,” Wirth-Hawkins told the State Board. But, she added, “I’m sure that this won’t make everybody happy all the way.”
Standardized testing has long been a hot button issue. Critics say such testing is stressful for students and teachers who feel pressured to “teach to the test.” Proponents say standardized test scores give parents, educators, and the public valuable information about the health of the education system. The state uses the scores to measure whether students are learning, teachers are effective, and schools are doing a good job.
A bill to cut CMAS testing time failed during last year’s legislative session. But a bill passed in 2025 ordered the state to study ways to shorten the tests.
That study showed that cutting questions from the literacy tests wouldn’t shorten them much, because students would still need time to read passages before answering questions, according to a summary. Cutting questions altogether could dull the precision of the scores, it found.
“If we keep shortening the test, we may be messing with the integrity of that information that truly is being valued,” said State Board Chair Rebecca McClellan.
Switching to an adaptive test that gives students the next question based on how they answered the previous one wouldn’t save much time either, according to the study summary. Colorado would also need to develop more test questions to deploy that model, it said.
The study concluded that reducing the time allotted for testing was the most viable option, officials said. But board member Kathy Plomer said that raises questions, too: “What does this do to students who may need more time, and it causes more test anxiety?” she asked.
In response, Wirth-Hawkins emphasized that most students finish early. Students spent an average of three hours on the literacy tests this past spring, the data shows, although four and a half hours were allotted. Wirth-Hawkins said the 2027 testing time will be above the average.
Several board members said they hope the study pushes back the perception held by some state lawmakers that Colorado students spend too much time on state tests.
“I’m just hoping we can figure out how to get the data off the shelf and into some of their heads, because I think this is really good data,” board member Kathy Gebhardt said.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
