AURORA | The majority of Aurora students who took new statewide tests in math and English this spring fell short of new Colorado proficiency standards, according to district-level results released by the Colorado Department of Education Friday.
Results of the state’s new PARCC tests, which were designed to better assess the new Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS), painted a familiar picture of the city’s two school districts. The tests were the first comprehensive look at the new Colorado academic standards, which were crafted in 2010 and rolled out in schools during the 2013-14 school year.
In APS, only about 17 percent of students tested met or exceeded the state’s recently adopted, more stringent expectations in math and English language arts. By contrast, slightly less than 45 percent of CCSD students met or exceeded the state’s standards in the same disciplines. The statewide mean sat at about 33 percent.
“At a basic level, we think (the results) are unacceptable,” Rico Munn, superintendent of APS, said of the district’s performance. “We need to improve our overall achievement. That’s not something PARCC told us, but something we knew long ago.”
PARCC tested students in third grade through 11th grade. Participation rates were higher statewide and locally among younger students, while high school student participation sagged due to an easier exemption process for older students.
“Low participation at some schools could have an impact on results, so parents should look carefully at both achievement and participation,” Elliot Asp, the interim state commissioner of education, said in a statement.
There were about 52,500 valid PARCC scores returned by Cherry Creek School District students and about 44,600 in APS. That’s an average participation rate of about 85 percent and 88 percent, respectively. Statewide, the average participation rate was about 83 percent.
The No Child Left Behind Act called for annual, statewide assessments to boost participation rates to no lower than 95 percent. And although many key points of NCLB were nullified in a new education bill passed by Congress earlier this month, the 95 percent mandate still stands.
Only about 10 percent of the some 3,500 students at Cherry Creek High School took a PARCC test at all, according to Tustin Amole, communications director for CCSD, who said that the small sample size doesn’t allow for a particularly comprehensive analysis of the results.
“We will take a look at participation rates because all the elementary schools had the highest participation rates and none of our high schools reached 95 percent,” Amole said. “For example, Cherry Creek High School had about 24 (11th grade students) take the (ELA) test last spring, and they are the state’s largest high school with about 3,500 students. So those 24 students don’t give us a clear picture of the entire school.”
She said that because participation rates from specific schools skewed CCSD’s averages, insights will be gleaned through dissecting numbers from individual schools.
“We just have to look at each school and see what their participation rates were, look for patterns and look for things that are working well for us and things where we need to add more focus,” Amole said.
The lowest-performing school in CCSD was Village East Elementary, with about 21 percent of students meeting or exceeding state expectations. Challenge School performed the best in the district with 90 percent of test scores meeting or exceeding expectations.
Whatever information is discerned from the new PARCC scores, curricular tweaks to address shortcomings in CCSD won’t take effect until the next school year, according to Amole. That prevents administrators and teachers from making any adjustments before the tests are given again in March.
“These tests were given eight months ago. We’ve never received test scores this late,” she said. “So there is very little we can do at this point to adjust anything before we take the next round of tests in March. What we’ll be doing is taking a look at the 2016 test results, which we’re hoping we won’t get back any later than August (and) compare those scores to these scores.”
In APS, Munn said that while not immediately useful, the PARCC results will gain value next year when they can be compared to the next batch of test scores.
“The data is not useful for us in terms of the kids that we have in front of us right now,” he said. “What will be useful for us is the next round of data to see what our growth looks like from one test to the next.”
In the meantime, the only loose comparison school officials have for the new PARCC results are past scores from Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) tests, which were administered for the past three years while PARCC was being rolled out. The new PARCC scores mark a significant drop in proficiency for Aurora schools when compared to the most recent TCAP scores from 2014. Last year in CCSD, 68 percent of all TCAP scores across math, reading and writing were considered proficient or advanced. In APS, about 39 percent of 2014 TCAP scores across all disciplines qualified as proficient or advanced.
Despite the negative contrast between the PARCC and TCAP scores, interim state commissioner of education Elliot Asp urged parents to acknowledge the fact that the new tests were intended to be more difficult and have long been expected to reflect lower scores.
“As parents get their first look at how their student and school performed on last spring’s tests, they need to remember that the bar has been raised,” he said in a statement. “And although scores may look different, I’m confident they will rise as teachers and students gain more experience with the standards and the new tests.”
Amole echoed Asp’s warning.
“We were expecting lower scores (compared to last year’s TCAP), that’s what happened across the state and across other states who use PARCC,” Amole said. “These are very different kinds of tests than we’ve had in the past. They are focused on critical thinking skills, using tools in a way that weren’t possible with paper tests.”
Munn, too, said that he was not surprised by the PARCC results and that the new numbers don’t change ongoing plans for the district.
“We knew that there would be lower numbers than people were used to seeing with prior tests,” he said. “With the transition, there’s no way of comparing these scores to prior scores. So it’s really about what we can do moving forward to improve from this new baseline.”
Aurora students less than proficient in math and English … surprise, surprise !
You’re not any better. You can’t just place three dots and make it a sentence. The irony! Also, you don’t even have a sentence, it’s a phrase. You meant to say, “THE majority of Aurora students ARE less than proficient in math and English. Don’t bash others until you’re perfect! 🙂
Let me just say that the PARCC tests were the most difficult test any of us Aurora students have ever seen. With that being said, I’d love to see you take and pass this test with a perfect score before you say anything.
It doesn’t surprise me to read your comment that “the PARCC tests were the most difficult test any of us Aurora students have ever seen.” I’d be surprised to hear that comment from a serious student from Douglas County, Boulder Valley or Cherry Creek.
Who are you to judge? You think that just because I go to a school in Aurora that has less money than those schools in places you mentioned I can’t be as smart or even smarter than them? That I can’t score as proficiently? Again, I would love to see you take this test and score a perfect score before you start bashing on us as a whole. I am a serious student with all IB classes passing with straight A’s and I struggled with this test.
Abolish government schools. Vouchers. Home school.
‘home school’ for these kids whose parents are the problem to begin with?
Vouchers.
More cemented thinking gooey? Or are you attempting to be pointless as usual?
ryecatcher, what is the solution? Seems to me like ur adding to the rest here… if it doesn’t start with the parents and doesn’t end with the teachers, then what is the solution? What’s the problem in ur eyes?
That’s a fair question. I assume that because you chose my comment to reply too among the predominantly conservative comments on this story, you are in agreement with the half baked conservative solutions offered by aldo and gofastgo which in my opinion are conservative nonsense.
But back to your question. First of all it was pointed out by the state commissioner of education that the new tests were intended to be more difficult and were expected to produce lower scores. He went on to say “scores will rise as students and teachers gain more experience with the standards and the new tests”.
It is well known that the Cherry Creek School District is one of the top districts in the state and would be expected to post higher scores than the Aurora District. I certainly do not believe that is a reflection on the teachers and students in the Aurora public school system as I’m confident most teachers in the district strive to do the very best for their students.
I agree with you that participation of the parents in their childs education is crucial to their success and is part of the solution. My late wife and I have first hand experience here in the Littleton district with our three children all graduates of the LPS district with two going on to earn college degrees. My wife taught in the district for 35 years so you could say I have a vested interest in our public school system which I support heartily.
If parents chose to send their children to private, religious, charter schools or home school their children no problem. That is their choice and right. For me I have confidence in the public school system as well.
What I find appalling is the asinine comments from aldo and gofastgo to “abolish government schools” and the borderline racist implications of gofastgo’s usual noisy observations.
Have a nice day.
Yes, it’s the big idea man coughing up wing nut one liners one syllable at a time. “Abolish government schools”. Perhaps aldo could give us an idea of what he means by “government schools” that is if he’s capable of organizing his thought processes long enough to say something intelligent.
Scalia was right, I agreed with him to begin with.
Scalia cemented his mind about the same time as you eh gooey?
The usual noise from a cast of characters (hardhat, gooey and aldo) knee jerking their way to no where. They need an outlet to expose their fear and ignorance. I suppose this is as good a place as any.
Look at the ratio of illegals to poor test scores. APS has a large percentage of students the live in households that contain illegal immigrants. The parents have very little understanding of English and as such, are not able to be as involved in the student’s education. This translates into less successful children.
I took both the online practice 3rd grade PARCC English and math tests. As a college grad, I can tell you they are serious tests. I’m way okay with the teachers teaching to this type of critical thinking and not a multiple choice guess-fest. Let’s wait for trends across Colorado and not judge PARCC just yet.