By Nic Garcia, Chalkbeat
Since Colorado introduced new, more challenging state math and English tests in 2015, schools and families have seen a steady — and often slow — trickle of results.
Now, the Colorado Department of Education is making available two years’ worth of test scores showing achievement gaps within districts and schools.
The data show wide differences between how different student groups score — for example, gaps separating black and Hispanic students from white students, or students with special needs from other students, or students who qualify for subsidized lunches and those who don’t.
On Monday, state officials quietly posted district- and school-level scores broken by student subgroups for the 2016 and 2017 tests. What took so long? Officials say they had to follow data suppression rules meant to prevent individual students from being identified, and it took time.
During the next few days, we’ll be examining this data — starting today with race and ethnicity-based gaps:
Here’s how the state’s fourth graders performed on 2017 math and English tests:
Here’s how the state’s seventh graders performed on the 2017 math and English tests:
There are two important caveats to keep in mind looking at seventh grade data. First, the number of students who take the state’s tests begins to dip in middle school. The smaller the sample, the less reliable the data. Second, some seventh graders choose to take more advanced math tests.
The widest gaps between white and Hispanic students appear in Denver and Boulder. In both districts, the gap on the fourth-grade math test is 42 percentage points. The next widest gap, 34 percentage points, is in the Poudre School District.
The math gap is worse for Denver seventh graders: 50 percentage points.
One reason why the gap is so pronounced in Denver is because white students are scoring particularly well on the state’s tests. In fact, a larger percentage of white students in Denver met or exceeded the state’s expectations on the four tests Chalkbeat looked at than white students in the other nine large school districts.
Superintendent Tom Boasberg said he believes one reason why gaps remain so wide in the state’s largest school district is because white students are benefiting from many districtwide initiatives aimed at improving learning for students of color.
“In some ways, it’s a reflection of how privilege operates in our society,” he said. “Clearly we want to and do offer high-quality supports for all kids and we want to offer a higher level and intensity to our higher-needs schools for the simple fact that those needs are greater.”
Boasberg pointed to new initiatives meant to close gaps. First, DPS is targeting a larger proportion of its 2016 voter-approved tax increases at students who qualify for government-subsidized lunches. Schools will receive $4 for those student for every $1 they receive for students who don’t qualify for free or reduced-priced lunches.
Second, beginning this year, schools cannot earn a “green” rating on the district’s quality reports — the second highest rating on the color-coded system — if students in all subgroups don’t make academic progress.
The Boulder Valley School District is also in the early stages of putting into place updated strategies to address learning gaps, said Samantha Messier, assistant superintendent of instructional services and equity. The school district is training teachers on how to provide different resources to match the needs of different students.
“We’re deeply concerned that we have these gaps,” she said. “It’s not a pattern we’re proud of.”
She went on to echo Boasberg.
“An interesting thing to note, Denver and Boulder also have the highest rates of income inequality in the state,” she said. “So you might see that play out at the school-district level. You’re seeing the effects of institutional racism that exist at a societal level playing out. I do hope we figure it out.”
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
