Colorado Student Assessment Program CSAP

The Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) is an assessment required by the No Child Left Behind Act administered by the Unit of Student Assessment in the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). The CSAP is designed to measure how well students are learning material from the Colorado Model Content Standards, the established content standards that all Colorado public school students should learn. The CSAP only tests for (mathematics, reading and writing, and science) of the thirteen subject areas in the Colorado Model Content Standards.Starting in 3rd Grade, and continuing until 10th Grade (Sophomore year of High School), all students are expected to take their grade level's version of the CSAP, testing for which typically occurs during the Spring semester from early February to late March. All grades are tested in Reading, Writing, and Math, and only 5th, 8th, and 10th graders are tested in Science. The 3rd and 4th Grade versions of the CSAP are also available in Spanish to accommodate the high number of Spanish-speaking students in Colorado public schools who concurrently learn English. In 11th Grade (Junior year of High School) students are required to take the COACT (a Colorado specific version of the ACT) in place of the CSAP. The COACT is also administered by the Unit of Student Assessment.