CSAP / TCAP

The Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) and the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) were Colorado’s standards-based assessments designed to provide a picture of student performance to schools, districts, educators, parents and the community. CSAP was administered until 2011; TCAP was administered from 2012 to 2014. The primary purpose of the assessments was to determine the level at which Colorado students met the Colorado Model Content Standards in the assessed content areas.

TCAP was collaboratively developed by the Colorado Department of Education, the Colorado teaching community and CTB/McGraw-Hill to support school districts as they transitioned to the Colorado Academic Standards which were adopted by the State Board in 2009 and 2011. Stakeholders used CSAP and TCAP data to keep abreast of individual student, school, and district progress toward attaining higher student achievement levels. Basing assessments on standards ensures that all districts are held to the same challenging standards that Coloradans expect for their students regardless of whether they lived in urban, suburban, or rural areas. After Colorado adopted the Colorado Academic Standards, students began taking the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) assessments in 2014 for science and social studies and 2015 for mathematics and English language arts.