District 6 sees all-time high CSAP scores

Greeley-Evans School District 6 reached an all-time high performance in the first of this year's Colorado Student Assessment Program test results to be released, but it continues to lag behind state averages.

In third-grade reading scores released Thursday by the Colorado Department of Education, 65 percent of students in District 6 tested at proficient or advanced. District 6 posted a 4.7 percentage point gain from the previous year, while the state average dipped a percentage point to 70 percent, effectively cutting the district's performance gap with the state nearly in half.

But while the district saw gains in most student subgroups, it still remains short of meeting state averages in nearly every key category. Only white students were on par with the state average on the reading test.

CSAP is the standardized test used in Colorado public schools since 1998, and is used to track schools' progress at the state and federal levels.

Moving past the numbers, statistics and percentage points, the results of the reading tests show more students in District 6 are learning to read, school leaders say.

"They are reading, and reading is the key to success in our society," said District 6 Superintendent Renae Dreier. "Each score is a child that is learning and improving their access to opportunities in this society."

District 6's results reveal 13 percent of students tested unsatisfactory, 22 percent tested partially proficient, 59 percent tested proficient and 5 percent tested advanced.

Last year, the district saw 60.3 percent of third-graders test at proficient or better, ending a three-year downward slide for the district in the third-grade reading results. Proficient is defined as students reading at their grade level.

Dreier said 23 percent of special education students scored proficient or better, an increase from 14 percent last year.

"That is a huge jump," she said. "It shows the literacy program is working for all our kids. Working for kids at the top end and kids that are very needy. It's producing results across the spectrum."

The district's gains were reflected in improvements nearly across the district, with 15 schools posting increases from last year's results and only four showing declined scores. The four elementary schools that saw a decline of the percentage of students testing proficient or better were: Cameron, Madison, Monfort and Dos Rios.

The schools with the most improved scores were Frontier Academy, a charter school, and Billie Martinez Elementary, a Title 1 school where 96 percent of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch. Both schools posted 11 percentage point gains from last year.

Paul Urioste, principal at Martinez, said the high numbers were the result of the staff's focus on instruction and a sense of urgency.

"We know they need to read, and we need to get them there," Urioste said.

Urioste praised the district's new literacy program and its intervention program. If a student is underperforming in a particular area in reading, such as phonics, he or she is placed in a phonics class.

"It's tailored to their needs," he said.

"It's amazing," Urioste said. "It's a different feeling. They feel successful."

Still, the goal is to see every student test proficient.

"I'm happy, but I know we have a lot to do," he said, adding he would like to see the school's unsatisfactory numbers to go down further.

Parent Michelle Heiny said the higher CSAP scores are a result of the instruction teachers are giving to students.

Heiny, whose son Robert is a third-grader at Scott Elementary, said teachers constantly focus on reading and comprehension. The school saw a 5 percent point jump from last year.

"Our teachers are absolutely fabulous," she said. "We still have room to gain obviously. We want to see 100 percent."

Larry Kleiber, the district's director of assessment, said the district's success is spread across the board, meaning not one school or subgroup is skewing the numbers high.

"The district is improving, absolutely," he said. "The instructional systems in District 6 are gaining traction and becoming strong enough where these are just the beginning of great gains we will see in the future."

Dreier said the gains made in the reading tests are validation of the district's new literacy program, which was implemented in 2006.

"This is a strong indication that the reforms are working," Drier said.

Credit, Dreier said, goes to the teachers and principals: "They need to be congratulated," she said.

Still with all the promising news, the district is working to close the gap between itself and the state.

"We still have so far to go," Drier said. "We have gone so far. We have shown significant improvement in a short amount of time. We, by no means can rest on our laurels."

The third-grade reading results are released early so schools have time to create an education plan for any student who is not proficient by third grade, as required by the Colorado Basic Literacy Act. The rest of the CSAP results will be released in late July.

Other key figures from the CSAP third-grade reading results:

« The state average of students testing proficient dropped one percentage point to 70 percent.

« Across the state, girls outperformed boys; 73 percent of girls scored proficient or better while boys scored 67 percent. In District 6, girls outperformed boys with 67 percent compared to 63 percent.

« In District 6, 99.4 percent of third-graders took the English CSAP.

« 81 percent of white students tested proficient or better; Latino students increased to 51 percent, from 47 percent last year.

« In District 6, 47 percent of the English language learner students who took the English version scored proficient or higher, compared to 42 percent last year and 36 percent the year prior.

The District 6 schools with the highest percent of students testing proficient or better were:

Frontier Academy, 90 percent McAuliffe Elementary, 87 percent Chappelow Magnet, 86 percent Winograd Elementary, 80 percent Monfort Elementary, 76 percent

The District 6 schools with the lowest percent:

Romero Elementary, 42 percent Jefferson Elementary, 42 percent East Memorial, 45 percent Cameron Elementary, 48 percent Martinez Elementary, 49 percent