The state “report cards” used to rate each of Colorado’s 1,700 public schools have yet to land in parents’ hands, but state education leaders say plans already are underway to give the 5-year-old document a makeover.
It’s too early to tell just how dramatic changes will be to the School Accountability Reports – blue, brochure-like documents that highlight test scores, student fights, student-teacher ratios, teacher experience and other school-level data – state education leaders say.
But any changes will almost certainly reflect a more sophisticated formula for measuring students’ academic growth over time, said state Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada.
“We want to make sure we have our (report cards) based on a longitudinal growth model, rather than a snapshot in time,” said Windels, who leads the Senate Education Committee and is planning legislation to change the report cards in the next session.
Parents currently get a growth rating for a school based on individual student performance over two years, a longitudinal measure, but Windels said the formula used for that rating can be improved.
She said it is unlikely changes will be made in time for the 2007 report card release. This year, 1,032,276 report cards will be printed and mailed at a cost of $284,945, according to the Colorado Department of Education.
State Rep. Keith King, R- Colorado Springs, said there are growth formulas that can show where students – rather than schools – are headed, and whether they will be proficient in certain subjects by a certain date.
“It’s a more specific approach to academic growth and bringing up kids who are behind to a level of academic proficiency,” King said. A “true longitudinal assessment … tracks kids and predicts whether or not they have an opportunity to be proficient. The system we have on the SAR doesn’t do that.”
The Colorado Children’s Campaign, a nonprofit advocacy group for children, is conducting a study of the reports for their effectiveness, said Andrew Brodsky, research director.
He said he’d like to see the report cards use “more accurate ways of measuring growth” as well as information on how many at-risk students are at the school.
High school data should include how many students graduated, how many went on to college and how many required remediation in college, he said.
With Gov. Bill Owens leaving office in January, education leaders say there is an opportunity to re-examine the reports, which are just one of three tools used to hold schools accountable. The other two are accreditation and measures required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Other changes that the report cards could see include tossing the five so-called labels – excellent, high, average, low or unsatisfactory – used to rate schools or speeding up the date for releasing the report cards to parents, state officials say.
Gov.-elect Bill Ritter’s administration, which is still assembling its education team, has not committed to any particular changes.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-954-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
