The Colorado Department of Education announced Monday it will reduce the amount of time students spend taking assessments starting in 2027 in an attempt to put valuable instruction time back into classrooms.

The reductions to the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, which assess how well K-12 performance measures up to grade-level expectations, will shorten mathematics and science testing time from three sessions to two, according to a news release. These changes will reduce maximum testing time for each subject by roughly 23% compared to 2026, without removing test questions.

The Colorado Department of Education has taken several steps to “make statewide testing more efficient” over the last 10 years, in an effort to prioritize time for classroom instruction. Since 2015, the department has decreased testing times by more than 25% for some grades, according to the release. The newest changes to mathematics and science testing will push the total reduced CMAS testing time by up to 36% across grades three through eight.

According to the department, the changes to standardized testing for spring 2027 will cut down on testing sessions beginning in grade three, with students in grades five and eight seeing reductions in both mathematics and science. What the changes won’t do, the department said, is remove test questions, reduce the academic content assessed or change the information reported to families and educators.

Because the actual content of the assessments won’t see any changes, this means a student that previously had three separate testing periods to complete an exam will now take the same assessment over two periods.

The planned changes for 2027 were guided by a study required under House Bill 25-1278. The study found that removing test content to reduce testing time could decrease the precision of results and limit the information available to families and educators. Instead, the department of education worked with “technical experts” and Colorado education stakeholders to evaluate actual student testing times and revise time allowances based on how long students took to complete the assessments.

The department said these revisions still leave sufficient time for students to “thoughtfully respond to questions without feeling rushed,” according to the release.

“Our focus has been on making the most of the time students spend testing while preserving the meaningful information these assessments provide,” said Christina Wirth-Hawkins, chief assessment officer for the Colorado State Board of Education. “By listening to educators and examining how students actually use their testing time, we’ve identified meaningful improvements that simplify test administration, prioritize classroom instruction and maintain the quality and usefulness of assessment results.”

In addition to allowing for more instructional time in the classroom, the department said fewer testing sessions will also simplify test administration for schools, including scheduling, proctoring and technology coordination.

The statewide assessments serve to inform the Colorado Department of Education — in addition to families and educators — about how well students are meeting the state’ s grade-level academic expectations. In addition to state-required assessments, schools and districts may also administer their own assessments to monitor student progress.