Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Fourth grade achievement gap–still “losing ground”?


                                                                                                                    Feb. 4, 2014

READ Act and the staggering percentage of 4th graders not proficient in reading

NAEP results for Colorado 4th graders: achievement gap in reading remains among highest in nation

In its report on the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the Colorado Department of Education states:
·         “In 2013, there is 34 points achievement gap in average score between Colorado fourth grade White students and Black students (Whites = 237; Blacks= 203). This gap was wider than that in 1992 (21 points).
·         “In 2013, there is 27 points achievement gap in average score between Colorado fourth grade White students and Hispanic students (Whites = 237; Hispanics= 210). This gap was wider than that in 1992 (20 points).” http://www.cde.state.co.us/sites/default/files/Summary%20of%20Facts-2013%20NAEP%20Reading%20Grades%204%20and%208_PA_Sandoval_Nov%2713_0.pdf – page 4.

Losing Ground: Colorado’s Minorities presents a disturbing yet compelling portrait of a state where black and Latino residents are falling further and further behind their white counterparts. That state is Colorado.” http://inewsnetwork.org/series/losing-ground/

The first play on offense for the Broncos last Sunday recalled the important study by I-News last year:  Losing Ground. After the loss, Peyton Manning was willing to use the word “disappointed.” But he was “irked” when it was suggested the team should be “embarrassed.”

Over 110 million viewers watched that disaster.  In contrast, I send this to just a few of you, those of you with your eyes on a more important recent “score” than that 43-8 drubbing, results that are, at the least, disappointing. Perhaps we are no longer embarrassed as they look so familiar. When it comes to the reading gap for our youngest readers, Colorado’s scores are again among the nation’s worst.

This week’s four-day 2014 Conference on Literacy, from Wednesday through Saturday at the Denver Marriott Tech Center, will offer 424 workshops. I write this in the hope it can be useful to one of those workshops, and because it is a topic that relates—I say presumptuously—to perhaps, oh, 423 other sessions.  To implement HB-1238, the Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act, with its welcome focus on K-3 students who struggle to read, we must face up to a few hard truths.  Only then will we be committed to make dramatic change and improvement in reading instruction in the early grades.

Pam Sandoval of the Colorado Department of Education will present our state’s 2013 performance in reading on the national report card: NAEP—the National Assessment of Educational Progress.  Registration material tells us that a central question of her workshop will be “How is Colorado doing in comparison to other states?”
One side of the coin, the positive story, shows that reading scores for Colorado 4th graders have improved since 2003 to 2013 (http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/):

Reading – grade 4
Average Scale Score
At or above proficient
2013
227
41
2011
223
39
2009
226
40
2007
224
36
2005
224
37
2003
224
37

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Early Reading Proficiency in the United States shows this is a 6% improvement from 2003 to 2013 – good to see, but no better than the national average. In fact, 11 states improved by 10% points or more; another 10 states improved by more than 6% points.

NAEP results - % of 4th graders at or above proficient in reading


2003
2013
Colorado
37
41
National
30
34

We know better than to trust a press release.  So we take CDE’s announcement last summer of the NAEP results with a grain of salt.  Happy news. Under Colorado Reading Highlights, Grade Four, we read:

There were four states that outperformed Colorado in average scale score (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland and Department of Defense), 17 states that were not significantly different than Colorado and 30 scored significantly lower than Colorado.

CDE also created a 5-pager with a Summary of Facts on Colorado’s results.  More good news on page 3:
Colorado is one of only two states that narrowed the 4th grade White-Hispanic achievement gap from 2011 to 2013. Colorado narrowed the gap by 6 points and Indiana narrowed the gap by 9 points. http://www.cde.state.co.us/sites/default/files/Summary%20of%20Facts-2013%20NAEP%20Reading%20Grades%204%20and%208_PA_Sandoval_Nov%2713_0.pdf

But let’s turn the coin over.

Keep reading that Summary.  Finally, on page 4, we find the figures on the huge gap in reading—which opened this essay—between white 4th graders and black and Hispanic students.  Nothing to celebrate here.  A story in Chalkbeat last November touched on the persistent achievement gap by race and ethnicity in our state—including math as well as reading:

Achievement gap: Colorado’s achievement gap between white and Hispanic students remains larger than the national average in both levels of math testing….Between white and black students, the gap on eighth grade reading, which grew this year, is also wider than the national average.

Last week’s headline in Chalkbeat, reporting on a more detailed study, was more direct: t in the one of the largest in the

Colorado’s achievement gap in reading one of largest in the nation

Kate Schimel’s piece stated:
The gap in reading ability between Colorado’s low-income and affluent students is the seventh largest in the nation and growing, according to a report released Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The report looks at fourth grade proficiency in reading nationwide, based on this year’s National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), released last November. (Jan. 28, 2014)

There she gave the data I pointed to earlier: the “34 percentage point gap in numbers of students reading proficiently between Colorado’s high and low-income students”; only “21 percent of low-income students proficient.” If not news, still a jolt, given our tendency to hear this once a year—and then brush it aside.

This report, Early Reading Proficiency in the United States, provides a national map that, for all of us in Colorado, is particularly disheartening. The heading reads: “Gap in Fourth-Grade Reading Proficiency Scores Between Lower- and Higher-Income Students.”  Go to - http://www.aecf.org/~/media/Pubs/Initiatives/KIDS%20COUNT/E/EarlyReadingProficiency/EarlyReadingProficiency2014.pdf  - Figure 2, where you see Colorado as the only state west of the Mississippi with a gap in the highest category, 33 points or higher (published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation).

Percentage of Fourth Graders Reading Below Proficient Levels, by Family Income

Eight states with largest gap between % of 4th graders reading BELOW proficient levels, by family income.


Lower Income
Higher Income
Gap
1.        Illinois
84
48
40 points
2.        Connecticut
81
43
38 points
3.        Massachusetts
75
38
37 points
4.        Rhode Island
81
45
36 points
5.        Virginia
79
44
35 points
6.        Maryland
76
42
34 points
7.        Colorado
79
45
34 points
8.        Tennessee
82
48
34 points
        NATIONAL
80
49
31 points
SOURCE - U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational


But NAEP is not our test – so why should we take this seriously?
Often educators disparage “those tests”—international assessments (PISA[1] and TIMSS[2]), and a national test like NAEP, as unconnected to our students, our standards, our curriculum.  The sample of Colorado students who take these tests is too small, they say, to have much value for us.[3]  Besides, they consider NAEP’s definition of “proficient” way too high.  Only 41% of 4th graders proficient in reading—are you kidding?  TCAP shows over two-thirds of our 4th graders are proficient.  And as for our low-income students, NAEP says only 21% are proficient; that’s hard to swallow, when TCAP reveals, in both 2012 and 2013, that close to 50% of Colorado 4th graders eligible for free and reduced lunch read at grade level.

OK—though it makes us wonder if our scale is too generous.  But what about the achievement gap? What if our own state reading assessment—taken by virtually all 4th graders in our public schools, echoes the NAEP findings? The data that follows will, I hope, keep us from dismissing the darker message in the NAEP results, for it uses our tests on our expectations for reading proficiency and finds … much the same gap. 

First, an overview: the past three years, roughly one-third of our 4th graders were unable to perform at the proficient level on our state test.

CSAP/TCAP READING-% Unsatisfactory, Partially Proficient (PP), and either Proficient or Advanced (P/A).


TCAP – READING – 4th grade

Unsatisfactory
Partially Proficient
Proficient/Advanced
2011
11.2
23.1
65.3
2012
10.5
22.1
67
2013
11
21
68

These percentages stand for a huge number of students.  In both 2012 and 2013, over 20,000 4th graders were found to be NOT PROFICIENT in reading.
4th grade
Total # taking the test
Unsatisfactory
Partially Proficient
TOTAL NOT PROFICIENT
2012 
63,137
6,650 (10.5%)
13,969 (22.1%)
20,619 students
2013  
64,484
6,733 (11%)
13,716 (21%)
20,449 students

Now a closer look.  Below you see the much higher percentage of Hispanic, black, and lower-income 4th graders who have not tested as proficient these past two years.[4]

2012 – TCAP – Reading  - 4th grade


Unsatisfactory
Partially Proficient
Proficient (P)
Advanced (A)
P/A
STATE
11
22
63
4
67
Hispanic
18
33
47
1
49
Asian 
9
16
67
7
74
Black
20
29
50
1
51
White
5
16
72
6
79
Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible
18
32
48
1
49
NOT Eligible F/R Lunch
4
14
74
7
81












Gap between white: Hispanic/Latino – 30% points
Gap between white: Black/African American – 28% points
Gap between student who are F/R Lunch Eligible and those who are not eligible - 32% points
2013 - TCAP – Reading  - 4th grade


Unsatisfactory
Partially Proficient
Proficient (P)
Advanced (A)
P/A
STATE
11
21
63
5
68
Hispanic
18
3,784 students
31
6,620 students
50
10,520 students
1
238 students
51
Asian 
8
16
68
8
76
Black
21
613 students
28
833 students
50
1,483 students
1
35 students
51
White
6
15
72
7
79
Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible
18
31
50
1
51
NOT Eligible F/R Lunch
4
14
74
7
81
Hispanic and Black students
4,397
7,453
12,003
273

Hispanic and Black students
11,840 – not proficient
12,276 - proficient






















Gap between white: Hispanic/Latino – 28% points
Gap between white: Black/African American – 28% points
Gap between student who are F/R Lunch Eligible and those who are not eligible: 30% points

Sadly, if we hope these gaps will diminish significantly by 10th grade, the final year Colorado students take the TCAP, we see the gaps decline only slightly. With only two years left in high school, roughly 45% of our black and Hispanic students are not proficient readers. For low-income students, almost the same percentages are not reading at grade level.

2012 – TCAP – Reading  - 10th grade


Unsatisfactory
Partially Proficient
Proficient (P)
Advanced (A)
P/A
STATE
7
22
60
8
69
Hispanic
12
33
49
3
52
Asian 
9
15
60
13
74
Black
14
33
46
2
49
White
4
16
67
10
77
Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible
13
33
49
2
51
NOT Eligible F/R Lunch
4
16
67
11
77












Gap between white: Hispanic/Latino – 25% points
Gap between white: Black/African American – 28% points
Gap between student who are F/R Lunch Eligible and those who are not eligible - 26% points

2013 - TCAP – Reading  - 10th grade


Unsatisfactory
Partially Proficient
Proficient (P)
Advanced (A)
P/A
STATE
7
21
59
10
70
Hispanic
12
32
50
54
54
Asian 
9
13
59
17
77
Black
13
30
50
4
54
White
4
15
65
14
78
Free/Reduced Lunch Eligible
12
32
50
3
53
NOT Eligible F/R Lunch
4
15
65
14
79











Gap between white: Hispanic/Latino – 24% points
Gap between white: Black/African American – 24% points
Gap between student who are F/R Lunch Eligible and those who are not eligible - 26% points

**

In short, we have to own this startling and, I believe, embarrassing truth: over their first 4-5 years in our public schools, the number and percentage of our black, Hispanic, and low-income students who do not achieve proficiency is tragically high.  Over 20,000 fourth graders. The READ Act is one of several positive steps.  But let’s be clear, turning this trend around is critical.  Let’s hope more than one out of the 424 workshops at this week’s literacy conference keeps this in mind.

We might also keep in mind the warning in Losing Ground:
The widening gaps, in most appraisals, do not bode well for Colorado’s future…. Racial
inequality poses a threat to the future economic viability of the state, (the Brookings Institution’s Alan) Berube said ….  For others interviewed by I-News, the inequities are a moral as well as an economic issue. If left unchallenged in the coming decades, they threaten Colorado’s future.



[1] PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment 
[2] TIMSS - Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 
[3] Colorado: 3,100 fourth-grade students in 118 schools participated. 2,800 eighth-grade students in 111 schools participated. http://www.cde.state.co.us/sites/default/files/Summary%20of%20Facts-2013%20NAEP%20Reading%20Grades%204%20and%208_PA_Sandoval_Nov%2713_0.pdf
[4] One concern regarding the READ Act is that the number and the percentage of students found proficient on our state test DECREASES from 3rd grade (often 72%-74% proficient) to 4th grade (as you can see, of late it has been between 67%-68% proficient).  We must hope that we are using more exact assessment tools (and perhaps less lenient) than the 3rd grade TCAP to find and support those students who are not proficient readers.