Thursday, August 12, 2010

Test scores

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Test scores

CSAP results mix hope, joy, disappointment

Article Last Updated; Wednesday, August 11, 2010  12:00AM
Results from the 2010 Colorado Student Assessment were released Tuesday with the usual mix of emotions. As analysts and educators pore over the data in weeks to come, perhaps more meaningful insights will emerge.

Absent a more in-depth look at the data, the short version is this: Taking only ninth-grade numbers for reading, writing and math, Durango and Bayfield are looking pretty good. With one exception, both scored significantly ahead of Colorado averages.

The statewide numbers, however, are essentially flat, with the added wrinkle that more students now are behind in writing than in math. Worse, The Denver Post says "more students are not on pace to become proficient in math or writing."

And, the Post reported Tuesday, the news - good and bad- breaks down along sadly predictable lines. Girls score significantly higher than boys in reading, and the gap is widening. Blacks and Hispanics gained on whites and Asian students in reading, but the gap remains. The black and Hispanic vs. white or Asian difference remained unchanged in math. Poor children did better in reading and math, with little improvement in writing - a gap the Post described as "huge."

The scores, of course, can be looked at any number of ways. But taking the total percentage of ninth-graders who scored "advanced" or "proficient," the statewide numbers for math, reading and writing are, respectively, 39 percent, 68 percent and 48 percent.

For Bayfield High, they are math, 38 percent; reading, 76 percent; and writing, 57 percent.

In math, Durango High School scored 44 percent; in reading, 76 percent; and writing, 53 percent.

But if test scores equate to bragging rights, the undisputed champion among local schools is Animas High School. In its first year, the charter high school's combined "advanced" or "proficient" scores on the ninth-grade CSAP tests were: math, 59 percent; reading, 89 percent; and writing, 71 percent.

Those numbers do require a caveat, however. It takes nothing away from Animas High and its students' accomplishments to point out that there is an apples-to-oranges aspect to any direct comparison between Animas' numbers and those of a traditional high school.

The importance of parental involvement and a healthy home life to success in school is widely understood. And as a charter school, Animas High is made up entirely of students who, with their parents, made a conscious decision to seek what the school terms "rigorous academics." It is a self-selected sample of highly involved people.

That is not a criticism - quite the contrary - but neither should the Animas numbers be used to knock Durango or Bayfield schools or teachers. The comparison simply does not hold.

A more interesting aspect of the Animas numbers could be that it achieved those scores while maintaining an explicit ban on "teaching to the test." There could be a lesson in that.


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