DPS eyes reading among Hispanics

Data show fewer than half on track to reach proficiency

Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 6, 2006 at midnight

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Fewer than half of Hispanic students in Denver Public Schools are on track to proficiency in reading, the basic building block of academic success, according to a new state method of projecting academic growth.

Data released Tuesday by DPS officials show that 46.7 percent of Hispanic elementary students are likely to be reading at grade level by the time they enter middle school.

From there, the percentage plummets, with just 22 percent of Hispanic high school students expected to achieve proficiency on state reading exams by the 10th grade.

"For Hispanic students, if you don't catch them in elementary school, you've almost lost the game," said Andrew Brodsky, director of research and evaluation for the Colorado Children's Campaign.

"We know that if kids are not performing at grade level," he said, "the further they go on, the less hope they have of ever reaching grade level by the time they graduate."

The DPS data "really brings that into stark relief, especially for students of color," Brodsky said.

The Colorado Department of Education's new method of tracking student progress, dictated in 2003 by state lawmakers, considers how well each student performed on state exams during the past three years.

Using prior performance as a base, analysts project whether the student is likely to achieve proficiency over the next three years. Dianne Lefly, a statistician with the state department of education, said the numbers are projections, or what's likely to happen unless something or someone intervenes.

But the figures can change, perhaps with the help of a stellar teacher or a solid remedial plan. "In many cases, we hope they do change," Lefly said.

While the different cut of data shows some expected trends in DPS - achievement by ethnicity tends to be whites on top, followed by Asians, blacks and Hispanics - it may telegraph possible changes.

For example, black students in DPS are projected to outperform their Hispanic classmates by about 10 percentage points across all grade levels.

The "why?" is less clear, said DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet, but cutting the data different ways helps figure out which questions to ask.

"What you want to know is what the causes of success are and what seem to be some of the obstacles to success," he said of closing achievement gaps. "There's an awful lot of speculation in the world, broadly speaking, about what those causes are, from socio-economics to failure in our system to other things. The reality is, nobody knows the answer because we haven't adequately examined the data."

mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245

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