Aurora CSAP scores show gains over state growth rates, reading and science dips

Heather L. Smith / The Aurora Sentinel

Students across the state have fallen behind in reading proficiency in the past year, while local students have fared somewhat better, according to Colorado Student Assessment Program data released by the Colorado Department of Education this week.

Statewide, the 2011 CSAP scores reveal an overall lag in students scoring proficient or advanced in reading in all grades except for third grade.

In Aurora’s two public school districts, the reading results were mixed. Aurora Public Schools’ reading scores showed increases in proficient and advanced scores in third, sixth, ninth and 10th grade; while fourth-, fifth-, seventh- and eighth-graders showed decreases.

At Cherry Creek, the reading trends aligned more closely with the state results, with decreases in fifth through ninth grades and increases in third and 10th grade. The reading results for fourth grade remained static at Cherry Creek.

Both districts showed stronger results in outpacing the state’s median growth percentile in writing, reading and math at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

The bumps were a bright spot in the APS CSAP scores, which still trended below the state average in many content areas. In 10th grade writing scores, for example, 25 percent of students tested proficient or advanced, while the state number was 47 percent. Only 20 percent of APS 5th graders tested proficient or advanced, 28 percent of 8th graders tested proficient or advanced and 26 percent of 10th graders tested proficient or advanced in science. At the state level, those numbers were 47 percent, 49 percent and 47 percent, respectively.

“The scores overall were stable. In aggregate, we were up 0.3 percent over 2010. (But) we’re still well below the state average in all of our content areas, and we have so far to go,” said APS Chief Academic Officer William Stuart. “We’re still outpacing the state in terms of proficiency. But we still have to make much faster gains if we’re going to close the gap.”

Scores at the district’s high schools showed strong trends, with MGP at 99 percent for math at the high school level.

“I was very encouraged to finally see some consistent gains at the high school level,” Stuart said. “I think that the long-term piece is that our goal is to get to the state average. We’re still outpacing the state at a 2 to 1 rate over the past five years. We’re starting to see some growth at the high school level.

“Hopefully, that will translate into fewer dropout rates,” Stuart added.

Cherry Creek’s median growth percentage outpaced the state average by 7 percent at the elementary level, 4 percent at the middle school level and 2 percent in writing. Cherry Creek’s reading averages were higher than the state average by 6 percent, 2 percent and 4 percent at the elementary, middle and high school levels. In math, Cherry Creek’s median growth percentage outpaced the state’s by 8 percent, 4 percent and 3 percent in elementary, middle and high school.

Scores at Overland High School remained below the district’s averages, a trend that Cherry Creek officials say has not gone unnoticed. In math scores, for example, 24 percent of 9th graders scored proficient or advanced, while 18 percent of 10th graders scored proficient or advanced. That’s compared to 49 percent and 38 percent at Grandview High School, respectively.

“Overall, we saw some nice increases at OL. Particularly in writing; 10th grade math and 10th grade reading,” said Assistant Superintendent Eliot Asp. “We have a relatively new team at Overland, there’s a new principal. People are working real hard at boosting scores and trying to get OL to get closer to the district average; it’s a project and we’re working hard at it.”

Asp added that while the district saw encouraging gains in writing and math, the dips in reading that align with larger statewide trends are areas of concern.

“These scores have more meaning when we dig into them. Why did the reading go down from 5th to 9th grade?” Asp said. “We’re not sure we changed a lot, so we’re trying to decide where that is.”

Initiated in 1997, the CSAP exam measures proficiency in reading, writing and math for grades 3 through 10. The science portion of the test is administered to students in fifth, eighth and 10th grade. The exams are designed to test students’ progress in meeting the Colorado Model Content Standards.