In CSAP test results released today, Colorado’s public school students showed steady progress overall, but the improvements are “minuscule” and “far below what it should be,” said Bill Moloney, the state education commissioner.
About 453,000 students took the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests in grades three through 10. The Colorado Department of Education released the results this afternoon.
Among the 2004 highlights:
– Fifth-grade boys showed “robust” growth in reading. Last year 66 percent were proficient or better. The number jumped to 69 percent this year.
– The percentage of fifth, sixth and eighth-grade students who are proficient in math jumped three points from last year.
– This year, 51 percent of students taking the eighth-grade science test were proficient, compared to 49 percent last year.
– Male students made gains in math in most grades.
Jo O’Brien, assistant to the commissioner in the office of learning and results at CDE, said the big news this year is math. “Nobody went down,” she said.
She said teachers are learning each year what approaches to curriculum and instruction are most effective.
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2004 CSAP SCORES
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“Bad news is (the progress) is minuscule,” Moloney said.
The biggest drop was in third-grade writing. Last year, 57 percent of third-graders were writing at grade level. This year, it’s only 52 percent.
Particularly glaring in the CSAP results is the achievement gap that persists between white and Asian students and black, Native American and Latino students.
For example, 92 percent of Hispanic 10th-graders and 93 percent of black 10th-graders scored unsatisfactory on the math test.
Scores for white 10th-graders were better, but still dismal; just one-third
