CMAS and CoAlt

CMAS stands for Colorado Measures of Academic Success and includes:

• CMAS - Science, Social Studies, Mathematics, and English Language Arts/Literature including Colorado Spanish Language Arts. The testing window is announced on CDE's website and takes place during the spring semester each year. 
  • CDE Assessment Website (new tab)
  • Accommodations Training Resources (new tab)
• The Colorado Alternate Assessment (CoAlt) is available to eligible students.
  • CDE CoAlt Assessment Webpage (new tab): A small number of students, approximately 1% of the student population, take the Colorado Alternate Assessment. These are students who have significant disabilities. Special accommodations are built into the CoAlt specifically for these students. 
    • DLM: Dynamic Learning Maps, Alternate Assessment program is designed to measure what students with significant cognitive disabilities know and can do. It includes English Language Arts and Math and is based on Extended Evidence Outcomes (EEOs).
    • CoAlt: Science and Social Studies and based on Extended Evidence Outcomes (EEOs). 

What are accommodations and what are some examples?

Accommodations are changes in how the test is given without changing what is being assessed. Students with an Individual Education Plan (IEP), 504 plan or English Learn (EL) plan, can use specific accommodations allowing the student better access to the test as long as there’s alignment between the accommodation and the student’s educational plan. That plan may also indicate the student is eligible to participate in Colorado’s alternate tests. Accommodations can be divided into four categories:

• Presentation accommodations – changes in the way test items are presented to a student (i.e., large print, braille, oral presentation, translated oral presentation, etc.);
• Response accommodations - changes in the way a student responds to test items (i.e., uses scribe, responds in Spanish, uses assistive technology device, etc.);
• Setting accommodations - changes in the test environment's setting (i.e., small group or individual administration); and/or
• Timing accommodations – changes in the scheduling of the assessment (i.e., allowing multiple breaks, providing extra time, testing at specific times of the day, etc.).