AURORA| Aurora Public Schools showed academic growth for the last school year nearly across the board, according to new standardized test results released from the Colorado Department of Education. But even with the overall growth, performance at APS schools is still below other major school districts and state averages.
The CDE growth ratings are different than achievement scores. While achievement reflects the level at which students are performing at that exact moment, growth scores looks at how a student’s performed in comparison to similar groups that had previously taken the test.
The new report found across the district students had a growth score of 52 for in English Language Arts, a five-point increase from the previous school year. APS also had a growth score of 50 in math, a four-point increase over the previous school year. The state average for growth is set at a 50 score.
“Proficiency is that once a year point in time, how did that student do. Growth seeks to look at the change that occurred between those two tests. Then it takes every individual student and groups them with peers that have a similar score. Essentially what you’re looking at is, are your students progressing faster than other students in the state,” said DJ Loerzel, APS’s Director of Accountability and Data Reporting. “For APS I think this is where our biggest resounding successes are. We’re seeing positive growth, gross scores of 50 or above across different school levels.”
While APS has shown growth, the district’s achievement scores for students are still low compared to other large districts in the state. APS had growth in every grade level except seventh grade but the highest the district scored in English Learning Arts was in eighth grade, where only 30.2-percent of students tested met or exceeded expectations. But that score reflected a 5.3-percent increase over the previous school year.
For math, third graders represented the highest achievement with 20.9-percent meeting or exceeding expectations. But that also represented a 2.7-percent increase over the previous year.
The growth for APS students was seen across most of the 46 different demographic groups in the district. Students who qualify for free and reduced lunches saw a five-point increase to a growth score of 51 for ELA and a five-point increase in math growth to a score of 49. English learners saw a six-point increase in both math scores (51) and in ELA (53).
“What you’re seeing across the board is that we’re at 50 or above in the majority of those categories. We’re actually 33 of those groups are at 50 or above of the total 46. Last year only 12 were above 50,” Loerzel said. “In a district like APS that’s been on the clock for a couple years, this is the work you’re trying to do. You can’t walk into one building and and focus on one grade. You have to find those opportunities for system wide growth and improvement and that’s what you’re starting to see here.”
Loerzel said while the spike in scores could be an anomaly, the fact that the improvements were essentially district wide indicates to him that this isn’t a one-off increase in test scores.
“What you look for is that growth to rise up. To show that you’re progressing beyond a single year and you’re catching those students up,” said. “What you look for next is for that proficiency to rise and continue to rise. And those are the things that we’re really puting system in place to continue to leverage this so that it’s not a one year blip on the radar.”