Big gains in CSAP test scores put DPS in a class by itself

Denver outpaces state in reading, writing, math

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 29, 2008 at 11:01 a.m.
Updated July 30, 2008 at 12:53 a.m.

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Photo by Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet, right, accepts congratulations from Colorado Commissioner of Education Dwight Jones, left, and others on CSAP scores posted by DPS students.

Photo by Ken Papaleo / The Rocky

Ahlonne Oubichon, 9, going into fourth grade this year, takes part in a theater script program at Denver's Whittier Elementary. This is the 15th year for the Summer Scholars program.

State test results released Tuesday show Denver Public Schools outpaced the state and every other metro-area district in gains made in reading, writing and math in nearly every grade in 2008.

The urban district's jump in reading - nearly 4 percentage points across grades three through 10 - matches its record jump in that subject in 2006.

The increases, coming in a year when statewide results were largely flat, mean that DPS beat the state in growth in all 16 reading and writing tests given and in six of eight math tests.

"Outperforming the state in terms of growth, that's what we need to do, because we're starting very far behind," said DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet. "Overall, it's very good news."

Bennet, in his third year running DPS, is a Yale Law School graduate who had little education experience when he took over the struggling district in fall 2005.

But the 2008 CSAP scores seem to show that the strategic reform plan, the Denver Plan, he helped craft with input from teachers and the public is working.

In three years, the percentage of children in Denver schools who are reading at grade level has increased by 6.2 percentage points. In math, the growth rate is 6 points. In writing, it's 2.2 points.

Science tests in fifth, eighth and 10th grade cannot be compared with prior years because the exams changed in 2008.

DPS reform efforts run the gamut from new planning guides for teachers to new textbooks for students learning English to more training for principals.

Bennet credits the people, not the tools: "You can have the best curriculum in the world. But if the leadership from principals and teachers isn't there, you're not going to succeed."

Perhaps most encouraging to Bennet and to his chief academic officer, Jaime Aquino, are the gains coming in the tough-to- move middle and high school years. In reading, grades six, seven and eight have posted increases of between 9.1 and 10.5 percentage points during the past three years. In math, the sixth-grade proficiency rate has jumped 11.9 percent and the ninth-grade rate has grown by 6.4 percent.

"We've eliminated the reading gap between elementary and middle school," Bennet said, referring to the typical drop in test scores from grade five to grade six.

This past spring, when the CSAP exams were given, more than 41 percent of students in grades three through 10 were reading at grade level in Denver schools, including 49 percent proficiency in grades five and six.

"It starts to make you feel that closing these gaps is not necessarily a generational work," he said. "You see we can catch up."

While outpacing the state in growth, DPS still lags in overall achievement. Reading scores in Denver top the 40 percent proficiency mark, for example, but state rates average in the 60 percent and 70 percent range. Statewide math averages also top DPS averages by 20 percentage points to 30 percentage points at most grade levels.

"We're pleased with the scores, but we've always got to refine and improve," Aquino said. "We can't stop, regardless of what the scores have been."

Efforts this fall include new reading rooms at the elementary schools and a computerized database for teachers that allows them to search for books targeting specific reading skills with which students struggle.

In math, high schools are implementing a new algebra curriculum, and algebra teachers will be meeting monthly throughout the school year to talk through issues. DPS is particularly concerned about algebra after only 15 percent of ninth-graders received a C or better on their course finals in the spring.

And to boost stubbornly flat third-grade reading scores, the district is expanding its preschool seats by 30 percent and its full-day kindergarten slots by 25 percent.

"We're on a path to continuous improvement," Bennet said. "We're just going to keep going."

mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245

DPS highlights

* DPS saw gains in all grades in reading, in six of eight grades in math and in six of eight grades in writing.

* DPS growth outpaced that of the state in most grades in all three subjects; 2008 science tests changed and cannot be compared with 2007.

Charter vs. noncharter

* West Denver Prep, the charter middle school followed by the Rocky Mountain News during the past school year, continued to excel and outperformed DPS on every test.

* Denver's charter schools grew faster than its traditional neighborhood schools in math and, slightly, in writing. But neighborhood schools grew faster in reading.

Poorest students

* Low-income students in DPS are making gains at slightly lower rates than their more affluent classmates in reading and math.

* Students qualifying for federal lunch aid, an indication of poverty, increased reading scores by 3 percentage points while all other students gained 4 points in reading. In math, students in poverty saw a 1 point gain compared with 2 points for other students.

Reform efforts

* Closing schools - of the eight schools closing this past spring, only Fallis Elementary in southeast Denver posted strong gains. Students at the school, who will be attending the revamped Place Middle School this fall, made gains on most tests.

* Manual High School - The first year of test results at the historic, and completely overhauled, high school were less than stellar. In reading, 29 percent of the ninth-grade class was proficient or advanced. In writing, the proficiency rate was 17 percent, and the math proficiency rate was 5 percent.

* Bruce Randolph 6-12 School - The effort to reform the formerly worst middle school in Colorado is showing results. Scores increased in every grade in reading and in most grades in writing and math.

What is CSAP?

Colorado began its statewide testing in 1997 with reading and writing exams for fourth-graders. The Colorado Student Assessment Program has since grown to include 24 tests in reading, writing and math in grades three through 10 plus science exams in grades five, eight and 10.

In addition, CSAP includes Spanish-language tests in reading and writing in grades three and four and CSAP-A or alternate exams for students with special needs.

The results help determine the state rating - from excellent to unsatisfactory - given to schools each fall in annual report cards. They're also used to monitor the state's progress in meeting the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

• July 29, 2008

  1:10 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  FreeToChoose writes:

  The biggest determinant of a person's lifetime earnings is education. And Mr Bennett deserves a mighty big congratulations for helping to build the next generation of American ingenuity form the ground up.

• July 29, 2008

  4:17 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  PI writes:

  congratulations to all the teachers of denver! hopefully now teachers will get the credit they deserve with a fair and equitable contract settlement!

• July 29, 2008

  6:20 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  margbobb writes:

  We who work in Denver know that the majority of DPS teachers are hard-working competent professionals, and it is encouraging to see this acknowledged.

  Ironically, the plan to restructure ProComp, the Denver pay system for teachers, would limit the number of teachers who could benefit from this DISTRICT WIDE growth to only 50% of the teachers. Having looked at the data, it appears to me that more than 50% of the Denver Schools showed growth that surpassed the state average. So how logical is a system that limits rewards to 50% of the employeees, when more than 50% of the employees performed? If you are a Denver teacher, get in touch with your building representative and find out the FACTS about the district-proposed changes to ProComp and how they could limit your pay.

  I truly believe Mr. Bennet when he says:
  "You can have the best curriculum in the world," he said, "but if the leadership from principals and teachers isn't there, you're not going to succeed."

  Please show ALL Denver teachers that they are valued and leave the salary building elements of ProComp in place. Super bonuses are a gamble that not everyone will get, even if they deserve it!!!

  Margaret Bobb
  Denver Teacher

• July 29, 2008

  7:56 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  poppy writes:

  growth? is there that much of a difference between 1 in 5 passing and 1 in 4 passing? In a moving just 5 kids out of 100 in a cohort from partially proficient to proficient will give you that kind of growth. And DPS is no where near the state averages.

  Maybe we should post the % of kids that teachers failed to get to grade level, instead of posting the minimal % increases of kids passing and patting ourselves on the back...then we wouldnt be talking about procomp, but rather the reasons teachers are failing a huge percentage of kids in Denver.

• July 30, 2008

  8:21 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  vudumom writes:

  It's the fuzzy math that they teach. I bet you could give the results to someone who can crunch the numbers and get a different take on it.

  Also look at the Manual High CSAP scores. Even with all the money and effort they put into that school they are not doing well. For the school officials to say that the results were less than stellar is an understatement to say the least. It makes me wonder if the CSAP numbers are correct.

• July 30, 2008

  9:43 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  LiveWell writes:

  vudumom-

  You know as well as I do that numbers can be manipulated to prove any point correct. What matters most is the raw data, so please, no more number crunching. You can go and check out the numbers themselves and see how each school did. That would probably be more effective than wondering.

• July 31, 2008

  3:08 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  BO writes:

  Vudumom-
  I think its the RMN that said Manual was "less than stellar." You don't know what words DPS actually used to describe Manual. I think Manual's results show that it doesn't matter what is done at the school level- problems are still going to exist because the outside-of-the-school issues are still there.

• August 2, 2008

  4:46 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  LiveWell writes:

  BO-

  Point taken, but how about Bruce Randolph? They seem to be doing fairly well with their reform efforts at the school level.

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