AURORA | Students in Aurora’s two public school districts have shown little gains in the past year on state standardized tests measuring competency in math, reading, writing, science and other core subjects.
Scores from the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program released earlier this week remained largely static from last year for students in both the Aurora Public Schools and Cherry Creek School districts. The 2011-12 school year marked the debut of the TCAP test, a bridge from the old CSAP exams to a new test set to begin in 2014 based on revised state standards.
Across both districts, students showed modest improvements at best and slight declines at worst, despite coordinated efforts to stress curriculum tied to subjects covered in the tests. In math, for example, third graders showed the greatest improvement in proficient and advanced scores with an increase of 4.2 percent, while sixth graders showed the biggest decline in the same test, falling by 4.3 percent. Those scores represented students performing at or above grade level.
At Cherry Creek, the biggest gain in proficient and advanced math scores was a rise of 1.7 percentage points for third graders, while the biggest dip was a drop of six percentage points for sixth graders.
Tammy Clementi, the chief academic officer at APS, pointed to long-term progress in the district, but added that the sluggish rate of growth evident in the 2012 results fell short of districtwide goals.
“We’re nowhere near where we need to be, maybe not at the pace we need to be at,” Clementi said. “Even though the 1.3 percent overall growth in achievement isn’t anywhere near our target and our aim — I think we did pretty well considering a district this size.”
Similar incremental gains and drops marked scores for reading, writing and science. High school sophomores in APS showed an increase of 8 percent in proficient and advanced scores for reading, while 8th graders’ scores fell by 3.9 percent at 44 percent in the same category. Cherry Creek’s proficient and advanced reading scores for 10th graders rose by 3.6 percent and came in above 74 percent, while the proficient and advanced scores for 8th graders remained unchanged.
The districts’ negligible rate of change wasn’t an anomaly compared to results from the rest of the state. The static trend in APS and Cherry Creek echoed the larger statewide TCAP results, data that saw an increase of less than 1.5 percent in students who measured proficient or advanced in reading, writing, math and science.
Despite the slow rate of growth, officials from both district’s pointed to signs of progress. Cherry Creek consistently scored above state averages, and showed progress in tackling the achievement gap, showing gains of about 10 percent for black and Hispanic students. APS continued a six-year trend of outpacing the state’s growth rates in all content areas.
“We feel like we’re seeing slow, steady growth,” said Elliot Asp, assistant superintendent for the Cherry Creek School district. “We expect slow, steady growth in scores. There are times where we wish it would move faster, (but) we are suspect of huge increases in performance … We walk a fine line with this. We cast a pretty wary eye at miracles.”
Despite modest gains, APS Director of Assessment and Research Lisa Escárcega pointed to six-year trends across the district and high growth rates in comparison to statewide data.
“The district as a whole has gone up 5.2 percent over the past six years,” Escárcega said. “I do think that is a message that all of us talk about … One year of data just tells you the piece of a story. You do need to look at multiple years.”
Along with the slow rate of growth came trends that are familiar in both districts. Scores from Aurora Public Schools still trended below the state average in many content areas. Cherry Creek consistently outpaced state averages, but scores from Aurora schools in the northern stretches of the district lagged in comparison to scores from the rest of the district.
At Overland High School, for example, 28.3 percent of ninth graders and 16.2 percent of tenth graders tested proficient or advanced in math. At Smoky Hill, those scores were 36.8 percent for ninth graders and 34.9 percent for tenth graders. That’s compared to scores of 42.6 percent for ninth graders and 37.6 for tenth graders at Cherokee Trail. At Grandview, the freshmen scores were 47.6 percent and the sophomore scores were 48.3 percent.
“There is a difference there. Some of that is because (the test) is connected to the socio-economic level of parents,” Asp said, citing the high number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch at schools like Overland, Prairie Middle School and Polton Elementary School. Asp added the launch last year of the $18 million Institute of Science and Technology between Overland and Prairie, as well as curriculum rooted in math and science at feeder schools, is part of a push to help those schools catch up with the rest of the district.
“We’re in the process of implementing a new set of science materials at the elementary level. We’re also bringing kids to the Institute of Science and Technology,” Asp said. “We expect more bang for our buck when we align our program closely across that feeder area.”
At APS, that specialized approach showed results at schools like Montview Math and Health Sciences Elementary, where proficient and advanced scores in math, writing and science have shown significant gains over last year.
“Everybody is watching Montview. Everybody is watching these schools that continue to beat the odds,” Clementi said.
In APS high schools, the number of students who scored proficient and advanced fell below state averages. At Aurora Central High School, 14.4 percent of ninth graders and 9.3 percent of tenth graders were proficient or advanced in math; at Hinkley, those numbers were 21.2 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively. That dip in math scores for high schoolers is part of a wider statewide and national trend, one that administrators say stems from increased difficulty in the math tests after middle school.
Still, the low numbers at the district’s high schools haven’t gone unnoticed by the district’s Division of Instruction.
“A number one (priority) is high school transformation, focusing our energies and efforts (on) what it is that’s going to get achievement at a quicker rate,” Clementi said, citing increased numbers of teacher development groups and other resources at the high school level. “If anyone in the nation can attack that high school math beast, we’re on it.”
Initiated in 1997, the original CSAP exam measures proficiency in reading, writing and math for grades 3 through 10. The science portion of the test is administered to students in fifth, eighth and 10th grade. The exams are designed to test students’ progress in meeting the Colorado Model Content Standards; the new test that’s set for 2014 will reflect adjustments to those content standards.
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707
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