Fewer Colorado third graders are reading at or above grade level, according to preliminary results from the state’s standardized tests released today.
The state’s schools saw on average about a 1 percent drop — from about 73 percent in 2013 to about 72 in 2014.
While many in the state yearn for a spike, the year’s proficiency rate is well within the historical range of the last decade, and the state did not say whether the 1 percent drop represents a statistically significant change.
“I wouldn’t think that dropping by 1 point is anything we need to be up in arms about,” said Sarah Hughes, research director for the Colorado Children’s Campaign. “But we want to see consistent improvement.”
This year was the first in the rollout of the READ act, which targets students in kindergarten through third grade who can’t read at grade level for extra support.
Read our related story here.
Search tips
- Click any district name and hit Search to bring up all schools in that district, including district totals.
- To compare schools, hit “Ctrl” and click on as many names as you’d like to see.
- To rank search results, click on a column heading. For example, if you’re looking at several schools and want to easily see which had the highest proficiency rate in 2013, click on the column heading “2013 % Proficient and Advanced.” Click once and it sorts lowest to highest – click twice to see highest to lowest.
- Clicking the “Details” button brings up more information about the 2014 TCAP scores, including data about the numbers of students scoring unsatisfactory or those with no scores.
Data notes
- Only schools with at least 16 third-graders receiving TCAP scores are included; the state withholds data for fewer students to protect their privacy. If you cannot find a school or you see blanks or X’s in your school’s history, that typically means not enough students took the exams that year to disclose results.
- Results of the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program come in four levels – unsatisfactory is the lowest level, then partially proficient, proficient and advanced, the highest level. Typically, a student scoring proficient or advanced is considered to be performing at or above grade level. These are the same levels as the former CSAP tests, given since 1997.
See our full 2014 TCAP results here
Learn more
- Can’t find a school? Think your school data is in error? Email us at co.tips@chalkbeat.org and we’ll check it out.