BOULDER – The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) today released Colorado School Assessment Plan (CSAP) results for 3rd grade testing conducted in February 2008. Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) results show that 85.1 percent of district students achieved the proficient or advanced rating, essentially unchanged from last year’s level of 84.3 percent. Statewide, the percentage of students reaching proficient and advanced decreased by about a point, from 71 percent to 70 percent.
BVSD Chief of Planning and Assessment, Dr. Jonathan Dings, noted that results on the Lectura Spanish-language assessment test jumped sharply, from 66 percent to 85 percent proficient or advanced, to reach levels similar to the high scores attained in 2005 and 2006. Statewide, Lectura levels held steady at 59 percent proficient or advanced.
BVSD’s initial disaggregation of the state-compiled data indicates Caucasian students’ scores increased from 89 percent to 91 percent proficient and above. There was a slight decrease in results for Latino students who took the CSAP in English from 50 percent to 47 percent proficient and above.
After having fallen from 18 percent in 2005 to 13 percent in 2006 and then increasing to 19 percent in 2007, BVSD’s percentage advanced returned to 15 percent in 2008. According to Dr. Dings, the imprecision that occurs in the course of statistically linking test scores from year to year may have some bearing on these results. The state decreased by less than one-half of one point in percentage advanced. This year, a low of only three-tenths of one percent of Boulder Valley students received a score of Not Tested, comparable to the state figure (.4 percent).
Because some student information such as English Language Learner status has not yet been verified on the files used to generate the state results, CDE has indicated to school districts that these results are preliminary.
School data were provided to principals earlier in the week. BVSD parents will receive individual student reports as early as the end of next week, depending on how quickly schools receive and distribute them.