Students at Spangler Elementary School in the St. Vrain Valley School District had missed federal reading goals for years before new principal Mark Lubbers started making changes.
In 2004, class schedules changed to allow for more reading, writing and math instruction; school standards were aligned to state standards, and teachers began meeting as a team with literacy coaches to discuss which strategies worked.
“The biggest thing was teachers sitting down and talking to each other about instruction,” said Lubbers, whose school serves 350 students.
It must have paid off.
State officials on Monday announced that students in nine Colorado schools – including Spangler – scored high enough in reading and math exams last year to be removed from the state’s list of schools “on improvement,” even as 22 schools joined the list.
The “on improvement” designation applies to Title 1 schools – those that receive federal dollars to serve economically disadvantaged students – that fall short of federal reading and math goals on the annual Colorado Student Assessment Program test two years in a row.
This year, there are 112 schools on improvement, including the 22 new schools, said Alyssa Pearson of the Colorado Department of Education.
Those 22 schools did not meet federal goals on the CSAP during 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years.
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools are required to show math and reading gains, referred to as adequate yearly progress, each year until 2014, when all students are expected to be proficient in both subjects.
School that are on improvement are required to offer certain services to students – such as free tutoring, or transportation to another school – depending on how many years they have been on improvement.
To be removed from that list, a school must meet the U.S. Department of Education standard for reading and math two years in a row.
Pearson noted that the federal government in 2005 raised the federal bar on reading and math goals, which made it harder for some schools to make adequate yearly progress, she said.
This year, 1,422 schools made adequate yearly progress and 467 did not, Pearson said.
Precious Broadnax, a new principal at Roosevelt Edison Charter School in Colorado Springs, celebrated coming off the on-improvement list.
Like Lubbers, she said a mix of things aided students, including four more bilingual staff members for the school, where more than 50 percent of students are bilingual, and using a lot of oral and visual instruction to teach English-learners.
Other offerings included Saturday school and an after-school homework club and tutoring.
“These are our children,” Broadnax said. “We all got together and aimed.”
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-954-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it incorrectly stated the number of Colorado schools that made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law. There were 1,422 schools that made AYP and 467 that did not.
