Scores released today for the final year of Colorado Student Assessment Program testing showed student performance was mostly flat.
Reading scores declined slightly for all grade levels except for third grade in 2011 testing.
Math scores increased slightly. Science scores were almost unchanged.
The greatest improvements were logged in writing, where fourth graders improved by 6 percentage points this year over last.Now, 56 percent of fourth graders are proficient or advanced in writing.
In reading this year, 73 percent of third graders scored at least proficient compared to 70 percent of students last year.
By 10th grade, student proficiency levels in reading average 65 percent statewide — a 1 percentage point decrease from last year.
Fourth graders were the best performing group of math test takers, with 71 percent scoring proficient or better.
Next year, instead of the CSAP test, students will take the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program, or the TCAP, during a transition to a new test by 2014 that will align with new state standards.
State CSAP scores over the past five years show fluctuating changes, much like the changes this year that have overall shown insignificant growth.
In the last six years, the overall percentage of students scoring proficient or above in third grade reading for instance, have gone up and down, ranging from a low of 71.4 percent in 2005 to a high of 72.8 percent in 2011.
Select school districts have had better results making improvements, and outpacing the state.
Boulder, Denver, and Cherry Creek Public Schools all were among the metro districts with the largest growth in multiple areas, according to state growth models released this year with the test scores. Boulder was the top metro district for growth in middle school reading.
Denver was in the top three of metro districts with the largest growth for middle school math, reading and writing, and high school reading.
Douglas County Public Schools saw their growth slow from previous years, and decreased scores in some cases, but the district still holds average scores higher than statewide averages.
In math scores, Douglas County’s largest jump was at the seventh grade level. This year, seventh graders scored 70 percent proficient or advanced in math, up from 67 percent last year.
Douglas County had the second largest metro-area growth in high school writing, just behind Mapleton schools.
In Mapleton Public Schools — a 6,000-student district covering 25 square miles of north Denver and parts of Thornton — improvements have been more steady for years.
Mapleton students increased math and writing scores at nearly every grade level in 2011, and all tested grades have better scores than they did five years ago.
The greatest gains over that time were for third graders in math, and high schoolers in writing.
This year, the third graders were a 53 percent proficient or advanced in math, up from 41 percent in 2007.
In writing, 19 percent of high school freshman and sophomores were proficient or advanced in 2007. This year, 33 percent of freshmen were proficient; 30 percent of sophomores were proficient.
Mapleton’s third graders also made big gains in reading, moving from 45 percent of students scoring proficient or above last year, to 58 percent this year.
Superintendent Charlotte Ciancio credits reforms implemented six years ago.
“It’s really not a year in the making, it’s six years in the making,” Ciancio said. “We’re happy to see the scores. They’re confirmation that we are doing the right thing, but we are not surprised.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com
