Third Graders Well Above Reading-Score Average
CSAP shows 81 percent proficient or above—PSD shoots for 90 percent
Erin Frustaci, (Bio) efrustaci@fortcollinsnow.com
9:54 a.m. MT May 2, 2008
About 81 percent of Poudre School District’s third graders ranked proficient or advanced on the Colorado Student Assessment Program’s reading test for the second year in a row.
The Colorado Department of Education released this year’s preliminary CSAP third-grade reading results this week. The official scores are expected to be released on July 29, along with the scores for the other CSAP content area tests, the CSAPA tests and the Colorado ACT results.
CSAP, the annual statewide test that measures students’ progress in meeting state content standards, was established in 1998. This year, 57,914 third-graders statewide took the CSAP reading exam.
Chuck DeWayne, PSD Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, said the district’s results were not very surprising.
“We’ve been at the same level for the last six or seven years,” he said. “It wasn’t a shock that we came out exactly the same as last year.”
He said that although PSD scored above the state average, which was 70 percent, the district’s goal is to move upward toward 90 percent. He is optimistic that the district will be able to improve its scores because there are several more sophisticated tools available.
“We can’t put all the kids in the same intervention and expect them to make gains,” DeWayne said. “Reading is not one dimensional. ... We are doing a much better job at targeting intervention for individual kids.”
He also said another area overall that needs additional improvement is the free/reduced lunch population because it consistently sees lower scores.
The reason the third grade scores are released early is because the test is tied to the Colorado Basic Literacy Act, which was enacted in 1997 to ensure that all students have established literacy skills by the third grade. The act calls for local districts to identify students who are reading below grade level and provide them with necessary reading interventions. By providing the schools with these scores in the spring, teachers then have time to develop individual learning plans for students who need them.
Moore Elementary School had the lowest scores in the district with only 54 percent of the third-graders scoring proficient or advanced. DeWayne speculated that part of the reason for this is the school has a high transient population and a fairly small number of students.
“Moore only has 37 third-graders who took the test,” he said. “Statistically, when you have small numbers, two or three kids make a big shift.”
Overall, DeWayne was satisfied with PSD’s scores and said that for the most part, students are showing growth from year to year.
“We always have some schools come up a little but and have ones go down a little bit,” DeWayne said. “None of our schools saw huge drops or gains.”
