Test scores from Aurora’s largest school districts remained relatively steady this year.
The Colorado Department of Education recently released the results for this year’s Transitional Colorado Assessment Program, or TCAP. About 500,000 students in Colorado took the test, which evaluates grades 3-10 in the areas of math, reading and writing. Students in grades five, eight and 10, meanwhile, are tested in science.
At Aurora Public Schools (APS), proficient and advanced scores on TCAP tests were flat this year, deputy superintendent William Stuart said.
“That’s disappointing,” Stuart said. “We don’t think it reflects the needed acceleration in the district.”
APS, which serves some 40,000 students, has made strides in recent years to close achievement gaps in testing scores, but the district remains far below the state average in the TCAP scores. In all, 27 tests are administered through TCAP, and APS ranks below the statewide average in each subject, sometimes by as much as 25 percent.
There were some positive signs this year, Stuart said. High school proficiency scores increased 1.2 percent this year over 2012. Middle school test scores were also up, he said.
Test scores at the elementary level, however, showed a 1.3 percent decline this year. The biggest declines were in writing scores among third- and fifth-graders. Math scores were down 5 percent among fifth-graders as well.
“We’ve got to be able to get those up,” Stuart said. “Focusing on elementary literacy is really key for us.”
In the Cherry Creek School District, TCAP results were encouraging for the most part, Judy Skupa, assistant superintendent for performance improvement, said. Scores were up on 20 of the 27 TCAP tests this year, she said.
“Our performance is pretty stable,” Skupa said. “We’re a high achieving district. Overall, there aren’t any major leaps and bounds this year, but we’ll take those one- and two-point gains as it goes in that upward trajectory.”
Cherry Creek students tested higher in most subjects areas when compared to the statewide average. Science scores were up across the board this year, as were math scores, Skupa said.
“Math and science were very, very strong for us,” she said.
Writing scores, however, were slightly down among third-, fifth- and seventh-graders, she said.
“That’s an area of concern for us that we’ll be taking a look at,” Skupa said.
Joey Kirchmer: 303-954-2650 or jkirchmer@denverpost.com
