“The No. 1 indicator of
whether an elementary school student will later attend college is not income,
race or ZIP code, said Morris Price, executive director of City Year Denver.
It’s whether a child is reading at a third-grade level by the third grade.”
“City Year Denver helps kids get a jump at success,” The Denver Post, Nov. 12, 2017
Introduction
In
criticizing Gov. John Hickenlooper’s 2017 state-of-the-state address in my
April newsletter (#160), I named three “fundamental topics” that other governors addressed in their
state-of-the-state speeches: our
lowest-performing schools; the state
of the teaching profession; and
students’ reading skills. As our
governor has given little attention to these three during his time in office,[i]
my newsletter this winter will make the case why those eager to succeed him
should make these priorities.
My focus, here, is reading.
But can they read well?
Reading is
so YESTERDAY!
Focus on the future: COMPUTER SCIENCE
|
Feb. 23: “So far in 2017, STEM and computer science continue to capture governors’ attention as they
look for ways to better align education with projected workforce demands. Here’s a look at governors’ computer science and STEM proposals in 2017 State of the State
addresses.” (Education Commission of the States). Examples from speeches by
Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, & New York governors.[ii]
|
Reading
skills as a priority? NO WAY! That’s
just not sexy.
Jesse and Leo, a couple of the high school boys I tutored the past few
years, spoke unkindly of my 2007 Prius.
I think they meant it as advice for a pathetic old bachelor—because they
would laugh when they told me:
“That is definitely not,” they insisted,
sarcastically,
“a chick-magnet!”
Speaking
of not being sexy – it may be
hopeless to ask our gubernatorial candidates to focus on reading. As I wrote in AV#160, the focus for many of
the nation’s governors last winter was … computer
science (see box). Only two (female)
governors–Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Susana Martinez of New Mexico—thank you ladies!—found their states’
efforts to ensure more young students read at grade level worth
mentioning.
And on it went during 2017:
June 26: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder “called
on lawmakers to change the requirements ….
He said computer science
should count to meet a foreign language requirement…”[iii]
June 29: “A year after a bipartisan coalition of governors was established to promote the growth of computer science education in K-12
classrooms, numerous states have taken up the cause, with millions being
allocated by state legislatures to increase the accessibility of CS
classes….”[iv]
|
I
present here an overview of the huge percentage
of Colorado’s youngest students whose
reading skills do not “meet expectations.” I hope the data makes our gubernatorial
candidates take notice. How can this issue
not be near the top of their agenda?
If
it is not, I wonder if we have lost our way.
Priority #1
for me: let’s do all we can to help our students read well.
Outline
1.
A look at Colorado’s chief effort to help K-3
students who struggle to read (the 2012 READ
Act).
Key findings: In 2016-17, 14.8% of our K-3 students—over 39,000—demonstrated
“significant reading deficiency.”
Of last year’s 3rd graders,
17.2%--11,500 students—demonstrated “significant reading deficiency”;
nevertheless, most advanced into 4th grade.
2. A look at grades 3-5 and
reading from TCAP - 2014.
Key finding: Results in 2014 showed close to 30% of
students in grades 3-5 were not proficient readers—almost 57,000 students.
3. A look at grades 3-5 from PARCC – ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS - 2015-17:
Key findings: PARCC results
2015-2017 show over 50% of students in grades 3-5 were NOT meeting expectations in English (reading
& writing). (We still wait for CDE to break down the difference on
these two critical disciplines.)
PARCC results in 2017 tell us over 75% of
Black and Latino 3rd grade students were NOT meeting expectations in English;
furthermore, over 50% of Black and Latino students scored in the bottom two
categories: “Did Not Yet Meet-”
and “Partially Met-” Expectations,
far short of performing at grade level. This indicates that many students of
color—even if not on a READ plan—will need much extra help in grades 4, 5, 6
… to be able to read at grade level.
|
1) READ ACT – 14.8% of K-3 students identified
as having a “significant reading deficiency”
Read Act intervention funds distribution
2015 - $33,123,766
2016 - $32,991,989
2017 - $33,047,938
|
I trust every gubernatorial candidate knows we have spent almost $100
million the past three years (see box) to address this fundamental issue of the
reading skills for our youngest students. The data below tell us much more
needs to be done if we are to achieve our goal: to see students read well as
they enter fourth grade.
Any candidate serious about the K-12 system should study CDE’s READ Act
report from 2017, its finding after three full years of implementation (2013-14
to 2015-16). A few highlights from that
report follow. An objective, third-party
assessment, “2017 State of Literacy in Colorado Report”[vi]
by Stand for Children, is also required reading: it shows where careful
implementation of the READ Act is reaping benefits in many schools and several districts,
and makes valuable recommendations on what more can be done. (See excerpts in Addendum A.)
From
the 2017 READ Act report by the Colorado Department of Education[vii]
(NOTE:
Bold throughout is mine)
The Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act (READ Act)
focuses on early literacy development for all students with special attention for students at-risk for not achieving
third grade reading proficiency. …
We know that early literacy is a key component of success in school and
in life. By challenging our state to decrease the number of students identified
as at-risk while also moving more
students toward grade-level proficiency, we believe collectively we can
drive student achievement here in Colorado while also serving as a national
model for improving literacy and educational success for all children.
From the Opening Letter by the
Commissioner of Education Katy Anthes
From page 2:
The Colorado READ
Act passed in 2012 with the purpose of ensuring every student in Colorado
reaches reading proficiency by the end
of third grade. The provisions of the Act promote early identification of
reading difficulties and effective intervention to quickly close reading gaps
and ensure all Colorado students can demonstrate a level of competency in
reading skills necessary to achieve success in school.
From page 4:
In spring of 2016,
the assessment results for 262,878 K-3 students were reported through the READ
Act data collection. Of those students, 39,014 (14.8 percent) were identified
as having a significant reading deficiency.
We should have no illusions as to how difficult it will be to reduce
these numbers (see AV#144: “Fulfilling the Colorado READ Act: a steep
climb ahead,” March 2016). CDE’s READ ACT DASHBOARD[viii]
shows the number and percentage of K-3 students in Colorado identified as
having a significant reading deficiency has held steady the first three years
of implementation.
37,510
|
14.3%
|
|
2015
|
36,387
|
13.7%
|
2016
|
39,014
|
14.8%
|
The overall 14.8% SRD figure is disturbing enough, but break it down and
consider the percentage of K-3 students of color identified as a long way from
reading at grade level:
American
Indian or Alaskan Native 22.7%
Black
or African American 22.6%
Hispanic
or Latino 22.5%
Native
Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 18.6%
“Research shows
that students in the third grade who read at grade level are much more likely
to stay at grade level and be on track to graduate high school on time.”
DPS School Board Member and
former Lieutenant Governor Barbara O’Brien[ix]
|
For 20 years, gubernatorial candidates have promised to address Colorado’s
ongoing achievement gap … but here we are. Still. I
would prefer politicians drop the platitudes about “education as the civil
rights issue of our time” and instead make a specific and sincere commitment to
tackle the gap in reading skills in the early grades.
It’s not just Denver and Aurora … or why this calls for state
leadership
Many
districts, of course, perform above average on all these assessments, but even
in a “local-control state,” our next governor should recognize the severity of
the problem in far too many communities across Colorado. An issue this widespread requires state
leadership. If a careful study reveals
that the $33 million a year for the READ Act is being spent appropriately (we
hear reports of districts diverting funds away from reading), it follows that, to
make better progress in the next few years, we must spend even more.
Students identified
with “significant reading deficiency” - 2014 to 2016[x]
10 districts above
state average
2014
|
2015
|
2016
|
#
of students w/ SRD in 2016[xi]
|
|
State Average
|
14.3%
|
13.7%
|
14.8%
|
39,014 K-3 students
|
Adams 14
|
18.1%
|
25.2%
|
36.7%
|
818
|
Westminster
|
28.6%
|
29.5%
|
31.1%
|
883
|
Aurora
|
27.5%
|
27.4%
|
27.8%
|
3,665
|
Englewood
|
31.1%
|
20.6%
|
20.3%
|
165
|
Sheridan
|
17.8%
|
13.7%
|
19.8%
|
79
|
Denver
|
17.7%
|
17.0%
|
19.3%
|
5,663
|
Greeley 6
|
18.4%
|
20.1%
|
19.2%
|
1,340
|
Harrison
|
16.6%
|
16.7%
|
18.1%
|
763
|
Mapleton
|
21.6%
|
17.6%
|
17.9%
|
388
|
Colorado Springs 11
|
16.4%
|
17.3%
|
17.8%
|
1,560
|
OVER
15,000 students w/ SRD just in these 10 districts
|
READ
Act helps students through 3rd grade –
but what
about those (30,000-plus) students still identified as SRD?
CDE’s 2017
READ Act report also showed that the percentage of students completing third grade in 2016 identified as SRD
is even higher than that 14.8% overall figure.
2016
Percentage of Students Identified with SRD
K
|
First Grade
|
Second Grade
|
Third Grade
|
17.2%
equates to 11,500 students. Even though they are far from reading at grade
level, most advanced into 4th grade.
|
8.3%
|
17.2%
|
16.3%
|
17.2%
|
The READ ACT report has those students--and thousands more—in mind when
it notes how many move up through their elementary grades still struggling to read:
It is important to stress the urgency of responding to our
state’s READ Act initiative since there are approximately
31,000 students beyond third grade with READ plans still in place as of the
2016 collection close. There are approximately 8,000 students who were
identified with an SRD in third grade in 2013 and remain on a READ plan as
seventh graders in 2016. (page 15)
My wish exactly, to stress the
urgency – a conviction we desperately need from Colorado’s next governor. (Need an example from another state? See Addendum B for the focus Rhode Island’s
Gov. Gina Raimondo brings to this issue.)
2) CSAP/TCAP data over 18 years:
30% of students in grades 3-5 not reading at grade level
Throughout the
years of CSAP/TCAP tests (1997-2014), state-wide data on reading and language
arts skills in grades 3-5 revealed a high percentage of elementary students
were not reading at grade level. As had
been true for some time, in 2014, the final year of TCAP, roughly 30% of
students in grades 3-5 students were NOT
proficient in reading.
TCAP
2014 (last year TCAP was given)[xii]
Grade 3 - 28% not reading at
grade level – 17,773 students
Grade 4 - 32% not reading at
grade level – 20,681 students
Grade 5 - 29% not reading at
grade level – 18,532 students
56,986 students, grades 3-5, not reading at grade level
3) PARCC- 2015-2017 – Grades 3-5 -
over 50% not at grade level in English
How can we be serious …
without the
data on reading?
The Colorado Department of Education no
longer tells us if students are proficient
readers. I find this absurd. In
AV#167 - “ELA scores hide the gap:
give us reading and writing scores (again)” - I urged CDE to do more than
simply present the overall English Language Arts (ELA) score. Especially when one of CDE’s four goals
states:
“Every student reads at or above grade level by the end of third grade.”[xiii] How can we be serious about achieving this objective if we do not report this data? |
Since 2014, the shift from CSAP/TCAP to PARCC as our state
assessment—which raised the bar to “Meet Expectations” of grade level work—we find
an even higher percentage of elementary students in Colorado are not where they
need to be in English Language Arts. (The
National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP, gave us equally harsh results
for a decade[xiv]--another
reason many of us find the PARCC results more credible than CSAP/TCAP data.)
PARCC STATEWIDE
PARCC results[xv] -
English Language Arts (reading and writing) - % Meeting or Exceeding
Expectations
Look just at that figure for Grade
3 for last spring – 40.1%. Here is a breakdown for the percentage of
students scoring in each of the five categories on ELA.
5
categories - Overall Results
% Did Not Yet Meet Expectations
|
% Partially Met Expectations
|
% Approached Expectations
|
% Met Expectations
|
% Exceeded Expectations
|
TOTAL Meeting or Exceeding Expectations
|
|
Grade
3
|
18.6%
|
17.5%
|
23.8%
|
36.8%
|
3.3%
|
40.1%
|
Equity
#2: Overall, 18.6% and 17.5% far from meeting expectations,
but
for Black and Hispanic students?
Now let’s look
at the percent scoring in the lowest two categories on PARCC – English Language
Arts – around race and ethnicity. If
students scoring in these lowest two categories are not on a READ Act plan,
they are still quite likely not
reading at grade level. (Again, lack of
details from CDE makes this a guess! CDE
does provide “scale score” data for reading.[xvi])
K-12
enrollment in Colorado for students of color has climbed to 45%—a percentage
that will keep growing. The gap evident
in the data below suggests that if we do not take major steps to dramatically
improve reading skills in K-3, the
majority of young Colorado students might well struggle to read well. Which
of course suggests—more broadly–as students, they will not achieve all they might
if ….
PARCC
– ELA - 2017
|
Black
|
Hispanic
|
White
|
State
average
|
Grade 3
|
||||
31.6
|
29
|
11.5
|
18.6
|
|
% Partially Met Expectations
|
21.1
|
22.8
|
14.2
|
17.5
|
TOTAL % in bottom two categories
|
52.7
|
51.8
|
25.7
|
36.1
|
Grade 4
|
||||
% Did Not Yet Meet
Expectations
|
21.1
|
18.5
|
7.2
|
12.0
|
% Partially Met
Expectations
|
23.1
|
24.3
|
13.3
|
17.7
|
TOTAL % in bottom two
categories
|
44.2
|
42.8
|
20.5
|
29.7
|
Can we also
guess what percentage of Black and Hispanic students in grades 3 and 4 are not
close to reading at grade level?
Possibly 40-50%? Again, this is data we should have; the sooner
CDE makes this public, the better. The facts
will give all of us–including our next
governor --an even more compelling reason to make improving the reading
skills of our youngest students a priority.
But can they read well?
The answer to
my guiding question, for tens of thousands of our kids—as I have shown—is that
today, NO, they cannot read well.
Gubernatorial
candidates and state leaders: as I will address in my next few newsletters,
Gov. Hickenlooper’s state of the state last January (see highlights, Addendum C) conveyed the focus that
several of you now articulate as a central purpose of education: training for the workplace. I will argue why this is not a vision for
K-12 schools in Colorado I can support.
It is a challenge
to set priorities for such a broad field as public education. But ask most of us if job #1 is to teach
reading—or if it is to add computer classes and apprenticeships. It’s not a hard question, is it?
**
Two past newsletters on reading are at this website.
READ Act and the staggering
percentage of 4th graders not proficient in reading
AV#144 - Fulfilling the Colorado READ Act: a steep climb ahead (March 2, 2016)
Addenda
B. “Third grade scores should alarm Rhode
Island” – by Erika Sanzi, The Providence
Journal
C. So what
did Gov. Hickenlooper speak to
regarding K-12 education? Technical training and skills.
D. Three other reasons to worry our candidates
will not put reading skills front and center
E. “Bill
Owens’ advice to John Hickenlooper: Make a difference in education” – The Denver Post, 2011
F. Coding
as literacy – (not fake news!) -“Ed-Tech Trends, Challenges Predicted for Next Five
Years,”
Education
Week, Sept. 13, 2017
Addendum A
“2017 State of Literacy
in Colorado Report,”[xvii]
by Stand for Children
From - LITERACY RATES IN
COLORADO: WHAT DO THE NUMBERS TELL US?
“Through the READ
Act, Colorado educators and students are making progress toward third grade
reading proficiency.” Schools with the Early Literacy Grant, “in particular,
are showing extraordinary growth.”
“The first group of students to
receive the full benefit of the READ Act, meaning scientifically based reading
support from kindergarten through third grade, had a 60.1% reduction in the
prevalence of significant reading deficiencies at the end of third grade.”
From - COLORADO STUDENTS NEED
MORE LITERACY SUPPORT
“Colorado
has laid a strong foundation of support for our most struggling readers in the
early grades, but if the state wants to improve literacy rates for all students
from kindergarten through high school and beyond, more needs to be done. Based
on Stand’s policy work, educator feedback, and data, we have identified three
gaps in the state’s literacy landscape due to inequities in resources and
student outcomes. We believe that if addressed appropriately, closing these
gaps would have a powerful impact on improving literacy rates in Colorado.”
From - CONCLUSION
Decades of
research have shown there are five skills children must develop to become
proficient readers by the time they enter fourth grade. … Fortunately, the state has used this research
to lay a strong foundation to improve reading outcomes for Colorado students by
adopting the READ Act. The READ Act, when implemented with fidelity, has
demonstrated success in improving literacy rates. Ensuring consistent
implementation of best practices in literacy throughout the state, supporting
students with an SRD, as well as students not reading proficiently, and
supporting students who enter fourth grade (or later) reading below proficiency
are key areas that, if addressed, could play a powerful role in improving
literacy rates. Colorado can and must do more to improve literacy outcomes for
every student.
Addendum B
“Third
grades scores should alarm Rhode Island” – by Erika Sanzi, Nov. 7, 2017[xviii]
Third grade reading
scores are a very big deal because they are accepted as the most predictive
indicator of whether a student will finish high school. Hey, Rhode Island, our
third grade reading results should be a very loud wake-up call! Despite some
significant improvements since 2015, our results were flat between last year
and this year, and our overall proficiency rates are unacceptably low for far
too many of our third graders.
The good news is that
every subgroup, with the exception of Native American students, has improved
since 2015. The bad news is that the percentage of proficient readers in third
grade is stunningly low, particularly when it comes to black students, Hispanic
students, students with disabilities, English language learners, and low-income
students. Not a single one of these groups is more than 26 percent proficient.
That means that when we line up 10 children, we can’t even say that three of
them in any of these categories read at grade level.
Let that sink in.
And our boys, overall,
are struggling. When we line up ten boys, we can’t even say that four of them
read at grade level. And while the girls outperform the boys by a whopping 10
percentage points, we still can’t say that five out of ten girls are proficient
third grade readers….
To her credit, Gov. Gina
Raimondo has made third grade reading a priority by setting a goal with an
actual deadline. The Providence Journal covered it back in September 2016:
“Today,
I’m drawing a line in the sand and setting a clear goal for Rhode Island: By
2025, when the kids who were born this year reach third grade, three out of
four will be reading at grade level,” Raimondo said in a prepared statement.
“When I see that just over a
third of our third graders are reading on grade level, I’m disappointed,
frustrated and I’m impatient,” she said. “Study
after study shows that the number-one indicator of high school graduation and
future success is a child’s ability to read on grade level by third grade.”
But we, as parents, must
also be part of the plan. Where is our impatience? Where are our voices? We are
always talking about school stuff, whether on Facebook or on the sidelines of
our kids’ games, but somehow these reading results don’t make it into most
conversations.
That must change. Even if our
own child is reading at or above grade level, our communities and our state as
a whole are gravely impacted when children — who later grow into adults —
aren’t fully literate.
We must care. Not only
is it humane to want the best for other people’s children, but our economy
can’t afford for us not to care about this.
Erika Sanzi, an
occasional contributor, writes for Education Post and Goodschoolhunting.org and
is a senior visiting fellow at the Fordham Institute. She has taught in
Massachusetts, California and Rhode Island and served on the Cumberland School
Committee.
Addendum C
From the
State-of-the State Address, Jan. 12, 2017[xix]
Thousands of Coloradans’ careers have
shifted beneath their feet, but there are still thousands of new jobs that need to be filled, many of
which don’t require college degrees.
But they do require skills, knowledge, and
expertise.
We need to include pathways not just to
four-year degrees but also to technical
training and skills certificates for the many jobs in Colorado that require
advanced skills like cybersecurity training.
And even beyond cybersecurity,
there is increasing demand for technical
skills.
From high school students wanting to work
as apprentices—to the many Coloradans who want a new career—either from passion
or necessity—these jobs should be available for everyone.
If we do this right, there should be an
opportunity for thousands of Coloradans to acquire skills either in classrooms
or on the job that are career-focused and transferrable to different industries
in the future.
In the last 18 months, foundations,
corporations and the federal government have joined our cause and provided more
than $15 million in grants to fund innovative public-private partnerships like
Skillful and CareerWise Colorado, helping students and job seekers develop new
skills for new careers.
Today, we are a national model for matching
education with skills based training.
Sean Wybrant is Colorado’s Teacher of the
Year. He has been teaching for 11 years at Palmer High in Colorado Springs, as
he said, to “change the world.”
And he’s changing it by focusing on the
one-third of our kids who won’t go on to four year or two year colleges. He’s preparing the next generation for the career and technical jobs of tomorrow.
Tim Kistler is the Superintendent of the
Peyton School District in El Paso County, where he helped open the Woods
Manufacturing Program in an empty middle school.
It teaches students cutting edge skills
needed in the woodworking industry.
We thank both Sean and Tim for helping to
close the skills gap, and for making sure all students realize their potential.
Closing the gap means giving students a
solid foundation for success at every step of their education, as they move
from preschool through K-12, toward college, certificate, or apprenticeship and
onto a good job.
Addendum
D
Three reasons to worry our candidates
will not put reading skills front and center
- From
“Five things we learned when Colorado’s gubernatorial candidates got on
the same stage to talk about education,” Chalkbeat Colorado[xx]
Annual fall delegation conference
of the state’s association of school boards - Oct. 13
Education
topics that came up at this forum:
1. state’s
tax code, funding formula
2. unnecessary
red tape
3. PERA -
state’s retirement program
4. charter
schools
5. vouchers
6. help for rural
schools
Not a word in Chalkbeat’s
article about reading. Not a word,
either, about the teaching profession, or the state’s lowest performing
schools.
- Other priorities we hear about on the campaign
“Although the
governor’s office has relatively little influence over public schools,
candidates from both major parties are incorporating messages about education
into their platforms.” Chalkbeat Colorado,
Aug. 21, 2017. [xxi]
This article mentioned different goals from four candidates:
- provide tuition free college;
- expand apprenticeship programs;
- boost vocational training;
- establishing universal full day
kindergarten and preschool.
- Advice from the National Governors’ Association
Candidates might be tempted to turn to “NGA’s Education Division –
Strategic Plan”[xxii]
for guidance. They will be reminded “that governors are uniquely positioned to
drive state policy across the education and workforce pipeline….” They will read of “five key initiatives, each
representing an area of education from birth through college and career. Each
initiative includes a range of focus areas that align with the needs of
governors and their education policy advisors.”
1) Governance and Finance
2) Standards, Assessments and Accountability; 3) Human Capital; 4) Whole Child;
5) Personalized Education.
Interesting and useful - but not one of the five speak to the question: How
well do our students read?
And where we find one specific recommendation on what should be taught,
guess what we see:
“Redesigning high school with a greater
emphasis on digital learning and
other new opportunities.”
I rest my
case.
Addendum
E
The Denver
Post, Opinion, Jan. 6, 2011
From
an open letter from former governor Bill Owens to John Hickenlooper as he began
his time in office. Here in Gov.
Hickenlooper’s final year - advice not taken, many of us would say. But maybe worth a look for our next governor:
The most important area where our new
governor can be creative and cost-effective — and use some of the unique
political capital he brings to the table — is education reform. Gov.
Hickenlooper has the potential to make significant and lasting improvements to
our schools, and build a brighter future for Colorado’s children ….
Every governor — myself included — confronts
the continuing and, sadly, often intractable challenge of creating an education
system that creates opportunity for children while expanding Colorado’s
economic competitiveness. During my eight years, we worked to reform and
improve our schools through a wide range of effective measures including school
choice, charter schools, and increased standards and accountability. I’m proud
of our record, and our reforms have made a real difference.
And yet, it doesn’t diminish these reforms
to face reality: We are a long way from the goal of providing every child in
the state with access to a world-class education….
There is no time like the launch of a new
governor’s term to take on the bigger issues. And the test of leadership is
always mustering the courage to leave the comfort zone of one’s political base
and set out to achieve goals that are important and necessary….
It is
daunting to predict a governor’s legacy before he even takes the oath of
office, but with bold and brave efforts on education reform, John Hickenlooper
can earn the thanks not only of a grateful Colorado, but the knowledge that he
has improved the lives of children who haven’t even been born yet….
Addendum
F
Coding as Literacy – (Seriously!)
“Coding,
Robotics, Makerspaces Poised to Grow in Schools, Report Says,”[xxiv]
by Sara
Schwartz, Education Week, Sept. 12,
2017
Coding and the rise of
STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) learning are the
trends to watch in K-12 educational technology this year, and schools may be
expanding robotics programs and makerspaces, which are physical environments
for hands-on learning, predicts a recent report from the New
Media Consortium and
the Consortium for School Networking ….
Some trends are geared toward workforce development. Coding as literacy, the idea that basic
computer science and computational skills are as important to teach as reading
and writing, was identified as a trend shaping curriculum and driving the
adoption of new software in the classroom over the next year or two. Coding
offers students skills that are vital to a range of professional fields,
including marketing, data analysis, and web development, the report argues.
[i] It is worth noting, though, that Gov. Hickenlooper’s
Dashboard & Priorities page does makes a clear statement on reading – To increase achievement of third graders reading at
benchmark – quite similar to one of
CDE’s stated four goals (see page 3). https://www.colorado.gov/performancemanagement/every-student-graduates-high-school-ready-college-and-careers
[xiii] Colorado Department of Education Performance
Plan, http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdecomm/cdeperformanceplan
[xiv] As
noted previously (AV#164), the NAEP scores were telling Colorado for some time
now that our CSAP/TCAP “proficiency” figures were suspiciously high. If the 2015 NAEP reading scores for grade 4 put
Colorado in the middle of the all states (22nd), that is hardly
reassuring. It means most states, like Colorado, face the same formidable
challenge: to try to get at first 50%, and then 60%--and then we hope an even
higher percentage of students—to finish elementary school reading close to
grade level.
Over the past decade, a portion of Colorado 4th
graders took the NAEP assessment for reading.
Each time, less than 42% were at or above proficiency.
NAEP
scores om READING - for Colorado students - % at or above proficient
2007
|
2009
|
2011
|
2013
|
2015
|
|
4th grade Reading
|
36
|
40
|
39
|
41
|
39
|
[xvi]
Where CDE does offer a breakdown, below, it
tells schools and parents the average scale score for each grade on
reading.
Average scale score - Reading
2016
|
2017
|
|
Grade 3
|
45
|
46
|
Grade 4
|
47
|
47
|
Grade 5
|
46
|
48
|
As CDE made it clear to me, in an email (9/20/17):
“the mean scale score does not tell us the
proportion of students meeting expectations.”
Again I believe this is exactly what we ought to know, what we need
to know – for each of these two distinct and vital academic disciplines—reading and writing.
