Third-grade CSAPs stagnant

Statewide, 70% of 9-year-olds are proficient readers, down slightly from last year

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 12:00 p.m., May 1, 2008
Updated 05:33 p.m., May 1, 2008

Photo by George Kochaniec Jr.

Pedro "Petey" Rodriquez III reads during a third-grade class taught by Siri Lewis at Castro Elementary School today. Third-graders at Castro showed the highest gains in DPS on CSAP reading scores.

Seven out of 10 Colorado third-graders were reading at grade level in February, a number that has fluctuated little in more than a decade of state exams.

That figure means more than 40,000 mostly 9-year-olds could pick out main ideas and summarize what they've read, among other comprehension skills, at a level deemed proficient by state educators.

It also means nearly 17,000 children across Colorado could not.

State Department of Education officials today released unofficial results of the 11th administration of the third-grade reading portion of the Colorado Student Assessment Program, known as CSAP.

Results show 70 percent of 57,914 third-graders scored proficient or advanced this year, down from 71 percent in 2007. Proficiency rates have reached as high as 74 percent but have bounced back and forth between 70 and 71 percent since 2005.

Gov. Bill Ritter is among those debating the future of the testing program, and it appears likely CSAP will be replaced over the next few years.

"The education world would love us to get rid of CSAPs," Ritter told those gathered in Denver today for a high school dropout summit.

He doesn't see it as a great evil as some others do, he said, but does believe "it can be improved upon in a very significant way."

Colorado students in grades 3 through 10 take CSAP exams in reading, writing, math and science. The third-grade results are released first so teachers can prepare remedial reading plans, if needed, for students entering grade 4.

The rest of the results will be released in July.

DPS, district results

Denver Public Schools' third-graders showed a slight improvement — 1 percentage point — over the 2007 results of their peers.

As at the state level, results for the capital city district have changed little over time.

In 2002 and in 2007, half of DPS third-graders were reading at grade level. In 2008, it's 51 percent.

"It's frustrating they were essentially flat," said Superintendent Michael Bennet, who is on his third year of third-grade results.

Most other large metro districts similarly held steady or saw slight changes.

Jefferson County, the state's largest district, remained at 77 percent proficiency while Boulder Valley inched up to an 85 percent proficiency rate. Boulder was the highest-performing district — again — in the metro area.

Some smaller districts saw bigger swings in their results, reflecting the wider changes that can result when the test-taking pool is small.

Sheridan, with only 88 test-takers, dropped 13 points from 2007. Mapleton, a district in the midst of one of the nation's most dramatic reform efforts, dropped 9 points.

The 6,000-student district on Denver's northern edge eliminated neighborhood schools last fall and now requires parents to pick from among 17 small schools and academies. It had 380 test-takers for the third-grade exam.

Moving a flat line

In Denver, Bennet said his first step will be talking with principals of schools making gains to determine why.

Ten more schools saw improvement this year than last year, with 53 showing gains, 42 posting declines and two staying static.

But Bennet said he's hopeful that district steps to increase preschool and kindergarten seats this fall will help.

DPS is increasing its preschool seats by 30 percent and its full-day kindergarten slots by 25 percent.

Third-grade results can be harder to decipher because it is the first year that students are tested. So there are no prior benchmarks against which to gauge progress.

"We need to make sure the rigor is there and there is alignment all the way through," Bennet said.

In addition, the district is adding an English Language Development Academy this summer.

Chief Academic Officer Jaime Aquino said an anonymous donor is funding a four-week session for English language learners now in the second and third grades.

An estimated 1,500 students will be asked to attend the free academy, which will run four hours a day at about 20 DPS schools.

Aquino pointed out that 36 percent of the third-graders who took the 2008 CSAP exam still are learning English.

"So a lot of our students are taking these tests in a language they have not yet mastered," he said.

Few Spanish test-takers

Another 783 Denver students took the CSAP exam in Spanish.

Aquino said English language learners who took the English exam typically are being taught primarily in English as they transition into the second language.

But students still receiving most of their instruction in Spanish take the Spanish version.

Across Colorado, only DPS and St. Vrain Valley School District had more than 80 students taking the Spanish exam.

In Aurora schools, which like DPS has a high Hispanic population, eight students took the Spanish CSAP. Paula Hans, spokeswoman for Aurora schools, said the district does not offer bilingual education.

So English language learners are taught primarily in English with some native language support. That makes them ineligible to take the Spanish version.

Aquino said he supports bilingual education and testing students in their native language, when possible.

"It's important for us to understand what students know in their native language," he said. "If they know what a main idea is in Spanish, then they know what it is in English. They don't need to be taught how to read again, they just need to learn a different language."

Also, DPS remains under a federal court order that governs how it serves English language learners, including offering native language instruction.

Statewide test-taking rates for the CSAP Spanish version show few other districts use that approach.

Altogether, 1,498 third-graders took the Spanish exam this year compared to 57,914 taking the English version.

Fifty-nine percent of the Spanish test-takers scored proficient or advanced.

Future of CSAP

Former Gov. Roy Romer, a Democrat, ushered in the CSAP exams in 1997. Former Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, used the tests as a key piece in his school reform effort.

Now Ritter, a Democrat, is calling for a "revolutionary shift" in public education, one that includes revising statewide academic standards and developing new tests to measure them.

The plan, dubbed the Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids or CAP4K for short, has morphed in the Legislature into a bill to pilot exams to replace CSAP.

Instead, schools would focus on skills students need to score well on the ACT college entrance exam.

Another bill would eliminate CSAP writing exams and its use for any purpose in high schools.

But while politicians debate the merits of one test versus another, DPS' Bennet said the real issue is bigger than any particular assessment.

CSAP scores are flat, but so are high school graduation rates and other measures of education progress.

"That leads me to conclude we're not as aligned as we need to be to accomplish the objects we all want," he said. "What that's going to take is systemic, transformational reform of how we deliver reducation, not just as a city, not just as a state but as a country.

"The good news is," he added, "as a community and as a state, I think we're ready to abandon what doesn't work and seek that alignment we need."

• May 1, 2008

  12:19 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Seabreezes writes:

  Show of hands, how many of you actually believed that 'teaching to the tests' actually worked??.....Yeah, me neither.

• May 1, 2008

  12:28 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  onemansview writes:

  "Teaching to the test" is the last resort of educational professionals who have known for over adecade what was agreed upon what and when students should know and be able to perform certain tasks. The education profession has not effectively changed instructional techniques in over a decade. To paraphrase the quote, as long as they continue to do the same thing, you would be insane to expect different results.
  Blaming the tests makes as much sense as blaming the thermometer. Both are simply measuring results.
  It should ouotrage the citizens and taxpayers of the state that over 25% of our third graders cannot read as we said they should over a decade ago.

• May 1, 2008

  12:55 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  psu96 writes:

  onemansview,
  "has not effectively change instructional techniques in over a decade"? Is that a fact or is it your opinion.

  CSAP has no importance for HS students...The reading/writing section for all grade levels is set up for kids to lose points very easily. They are looking for specific words, details and you lose major points when they are not present.
  CSAP might be good to see growth over the years but the accountability piece is flawed.

• May 1, 2008

  1:22 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  PajamaPulitzer writes:

  Lot's of comments from the experts in the story as to how they need to find new ways to evaluate the students, but nothing as to how they just flat need to do a better job of teaching. The most important evaluation of course is whether American public school students can compete with kids from other developed nations. Answer; they can't. The great public school experiment is a dismal failure. Take the same dollars and use them allow kids to go to existing or new private schools and things will improve dramatically. Of course the teaching "industry" would die, so forget that idea. Better to have our kids languish in crappy schools than to have the crappy teachers get a job washing dishes like they should have in the first place.

• May 1, 2008

  2:04 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  farsidefan writes:

  PP, oh yea, private school is the answer. When the private schools have to take all comers then watch their scores fall. I have had kids in public schools since 1980. One is a Major in the air force, another is a paramedic and the last is a 5th grader who is now reading at a 7th grade level. The great "I'm too busy with my own life to help my kid" parent experiment is the dismal failure.
  Better to blame the schools than take any responsibility themselves.

• May 1, 2008

  2:05 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  stella writes:

  "Take the same dollars and use them allow kids to go to existing or new private schools and things will improve dramatically."

  Yeah, because the teachers in private schools are so much better. Everyone knows that every teacher in every public school is wretched. And every teacher in every private school can churn out Harvard graduates and future CEOs. Please. Give me a break.

• May 1, 2008

  2:42 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  huffdiver writes:

  The answer of course is Mo Money Mo Money Mo Money!!

  And of course, it will BE FOR THE CHILDREN!!

• May 1, 2008

  3:16 p.m.

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  BirdonaWire writes:

  Pajama, very simple thinking. I think you might want to place your blame on societal values instead of public school teachers. What do you think the everyday lives are like for kids who go to Graland compared with Hispanic dominated public schools. Think mom and dad know what their kids are doing in school? Making sure their kids are occupied? Reading to them? What are you going to do when those same kids that struggle in public schools come to private schools? Have fun! Oh wait, you won't teach them. Another empty opinion.

• May 1, 2008

  3:48 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Monica030 writes:

  CSAP is a joke. When I was in middle school and HS, I looked forward to CSAP, because it meant I would get free breakfast and snacks and I didn't have to do anything that day. I suspect the results from the tests are lower than what is actually the case b/c many students do not take it seriously (as I didn't) and do not try their hardest.

  ACT scores are much more important! Students actually take that test seriously, because it's a big factor in deciding whether or not they can go to the college of their choice.

  Statewide tests like CSAP will never be accurate or helpful until some sort of accountability for the student is in included. Don't expect children to try hard just to make the state look better.

• May 1, 2008

  4:03 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  cimsibs writes:

  There is no such thing as "teaching to the test"! Go to the CDE website & review the standards for each grade, which were developed by Colorado teachers for each grade level in each subject. Teachers determined the cut point for the advanced, proficient, partially proficient and unsatisfactory categories. It is very straightforward. Teach children to mastery in reading, writing, math and science and they will be successful on CSAP or any other type of test. A test is merely an indication of how well the teacher taught and how well their students learned. It is all too easy to "shoot the messenger". Ultimately, shooting the messenger doesn't help one struggling student.

• May 1, 2008

  4:12 p.m.

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  DeimosJB writes:

  Firstly, Castro Elementary School? CASTRO? Elementary school? Someone please tell me that this school is named after some noteworthy Castro in the Denver area, rather than the mass-murderer who took Cuba from having a higher per-capita income than most of Europe to a nation where its citizens flee on makeshift boats to Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.

  Secondly, a few of you on this board throw out vitriolic comments against private school. Simply look at the facts:

  Private school students beat public school students in every category. ACT/SAT score, standardized scores in math, science, reading. Everything. This is logical because "public school" is really a misnomer for "government school", mandated curriculum, mandated methodology, mandated failure; whereas "private school" is run like a business - the school actually has to get results or it goes out of business.

  Home school is also better than public/government school.

  *The average cost per student in America is $6058, yet we saw a Denver Post article a couple days ago that schools can't afford field trips anymore. The average cost for home-school: $450.00, with field trips galore.

  *Average SAT score for public school: 1019. Average for home school: 1100.

  *8th graders who are homeschooled are performing approximately four grades above the national average.

  *Approximately 70% of homeschoolers attend religious services.

  *On standardized testing, homeschoolers average in the 87 percentile, while public school peers average in the 61 percentile in reading (white).

  *On standardized testing, homeschoolers average in the 87 percentile, while public school peers average in the 49 percentile in reading (minority).

  To summarize, many of you are venting about private school, claiming that it is not really any better, particularly if we send the public school students to private school. The facts say otherwise. The facts say private school is better. The facts also say home-school is better.

• May 1, 2008

  4:24 p.m.

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  stella writes:

  "Private school students beat public school students in every category."

  So tell me, how many Special Ed kids with mild/moderate learning disabilities do you think Graland or Kent or even a cut-rate Catholic school enroll? My guess...not very many. Why do are so many parents advised to send their kids with learning issues to DPS and other public school systems? Because they get better services. My school has at least 5 specialized teachers trying to reach this student population. Do you not think this affects test scores? Kids with low IQs are not going to be advanced readers...but go ahead and give them to Graland and I'm sure miracles will be worked. Not.

• May 2, 2008

  9:26 a.m.

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  DeimosJB writes:

  GREAT question Stella!!!
  Research also shows that homeschooling families have a greater percentage of both gifted as well as learning disabled students than the national average. If you want to see the data yourself, you can look at FOXnews. The data I bring up does indeed EXCLUDE testing for special needs kids at private schools. It also EXCLUDES testing for special needs kids at public schools, preserving an apples to apples comparison.
  The reason why more special needs kids home school is obvious: their parents can do a better job of providing for their learning needs 1 on 1 then can a public school. Private schools are similar - more individualized attention means more opportunities for your special-needs student.
  Again, terrific question! Thank you for showing one more area in which private schools and home schools are better than public schools. Blessings to you.

• May 2, 2008

  10:42 a.m.

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  cimsibs writes:

  Denegrating homeschooling or private schooling is not very productive in my book. The parents that make these educational choices for their children are actually paying twice. Once in taxes that are funnelled to the state, and again for either the private school tuition or homeschooling curriculum materials. Folks, as taxpayers, we are getting a very poor product for our money. Look at the continual number of students who are not being taught in our public schools!!! It is appalling. Yet, how many of you posting have actually attended one of your local school board meetings muchless on a regular basis? Until you do so, you are operating from a lack understanding that most school boards merely "rubber stamp" what the entrenched education establishment puts before them to vote upon. Pick a district and none of those school board members will take public accountability for the lack of learning in their districts. Sad but oh so true. Until the taxpaying public starts to attend their local school board meetings in larger numbers, the status quo will continue.