AURORA | Preliminary results from this year’s statewide reading tests for public school students have both local districts pointing to hopeful signs of progress and insisting there’s still work to be done.

Third graders in Aurora made progress in reading proficiency since last year, according to preliminary Transitional Colorado Assessment Program scores released earlier this month. The Colorado Department of Education released preliminary results from this year’s TCAP tests, data that showed a small uptick in reading proficiency across the state. Scores from the Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek School districts showed a similarly slight upward trend in the number of third graders proficient in the state’s reading test.

Officials from both districts say the early results bode well for the final tally from all grade levels, which are due in August. What’s more, both APS and Cherry Creek are singling out high-performing schools from the data and looking for ways to recreate the gains at buildings where scores are lagging. At APS, that effort may include creating videos of effective teachers at work for future study.

“One of the things that we’ve asked of all buildings across the district is to identify exemplary teachers in reading, writing math and science,” said Tammy Clementi, chief academic officer for the district. “We’re going to start capturing a lot more on a video repository. Sometimes individual buildings can go in and access that video … For schools that didn’t have an increase, we drill down into all of the subcategories. We always say, ‘Who were they’ and ‘What did we do about it?’”

At APS, 28.1 percent of students were partially proficient, compared to 28 percent in 2011; 49.6 percent of students were proficient, compared to 48 percent in 2011; and 1.9 percent showed advanced results, compared to 1 percent in 2011. The total number of APS third graders who were proficient or advanced in 2012 was 51.5 percent, compared to 49 percent in 2011.

“As a district, the majority of our schools went up. We had a pretty decent gain as compared to the state average,” Clementi said. “When you narrow it down, when you go into these individual buildings, the bottom line is it comes down to the teacher every single time,” she added, pointing to notable gains at schools like Lyn Knoll Elementary School.

At Cherry Creek, 13.3 percent of third graders were partially proficient, compared to 13 percent in 2011; 70.5 percent of third graders were proficient, a slight dip from 72 percent in 2011; 10.3 percent were advanced, compared to 8 percent in 2011. The total number of Cherry Creek third graders who fell into the proficient or advanced category in 2012 was 80.8 percent, compared to 80 percent in 2012.

Officials from Cherry Creek pointed to results that were significantly higher than the state average in several categories. For example, the state total of proficient and advanced readers in third grade was 73.9 percent, according to the preliminary results.

“We’ve had some bumps up and down, but it’s a continuation of a slow but steady increase,” said Assistant Superintendent Elliot Asp. “We’ve had some nice increases at some schools where we’ve taken some strong steps to improve literacy.”

It’s the first year the state has implemented the TCAP assessment, a test designed to gradually replace the former Colorado State Assessment Program test, which expired in 2011. The full results of this year’s TCAP assessments will be released in August.

Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707