The state Department of Education doesn’t track student performance well enough to tell whether a nearly $100 million, six-year intensive literacy program is working, according to an audit released Tuesday.
The report, released during a meeting of the legislative audit committee, also found that the department’s review process does not effectively “target funds where they are most needed.”
“It is disappointing that the expenditure of over $97 million in Read to Achieve grants has not resulted in discernible improvement in the percentage of third graders reading at grade level,” auditors wrote.
The report did show that about half of the students who completed the program between fiscal 2003 and 2005 improved their reading skills. However, auditors were unable to “isolate the effect of the Read to Achieve Program and to evaluate the cost-benefit of the program.”
The Read to Achieve program, established in 2000, provides grants to schools for programs to help second-graders and third-graders become proficient readers at their grade levels.
The program is funded with money the state receives annually as part of a lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies. Between fiscal 2001 and 2006, the state spent $98.9 million on the effort, according to the report.
Debora Scheffel of the Colorado Department of Education said it’s unfair to say the program has not improved students’ reading skills.
“I think what (the auditors are) saying is they can’t for certain say that these moneys had a significant impact,” Scheffel said. “Overall, I think it can be a very beneficial program.”
Auditors recommended the department begin tracking data to better measure student progress. Education officials agreed to implement all of the report’s suggestions.
Scheffel, the department’s competitive grants and awards director, said officials may begin measuring students’ progress against control groups not in the program.
Republican state Sen. Nancy Spence of Centennial, an audit committee member, said the program has worked and is highly valued by educators.
“How many more kids are reading now than before the program? That’s the number I like to focus on,” Spence said.
But Republican state Rep. Al White of Winter Park, an audit committee member, said he was concerned that the state has spent nearly $100 million without seeing results.
“I don’t see how we can spend that kind of money and not see some benefit,” he said.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at 303-820-1633 of cfrates@denverpost.com.
