LPS students continue to perform well on state assessment tests; trends in student growth are promising

Today, the Colorado Department of Education released last spring’s scores from the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) tests and the PSAT/SAT. The Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) is the state’s common measurement of students’ progress at the end of the school year for students in grades three through eight in English language arts, math and science. The PSAT and SAT exams, taken by Colorado’s 9th-, 10th- and 11th-graders, are aligned to the Colorado Academic Standards and offer free, high-quality practice tools and scholarship opportunities. Ninth-graders and 10th-graders take the PSAT and 11th-graders take the SAT as the state college-entrance exam.

Student performance is based on the level of mastery of the state standards.  LPS’ curricula and instruction have been developed to align with the Colorado Academic Standards.  Ongoing classroom-level, building-level, and district-level assessments provide information about student achievement of LPS expectations. The results of these assessments help us meet the individual needs of students and help us evaluate instructional programming and curriculum implementation.

Rather than compare itself to the state average, LPS chose 13 school districts to compare itself to (most within the Denver metro area, and a few others just outside of the Denver area whose subgroup populations are similar to those in LPS).

There are some big celebrations in the data, and there are some areas for improvement. 

On the CMAS test, LPS students demonstrated growth in almost every student subgroup in English language arts. We are particularly pleased with the growth in the students with individualized education programs subgroup.

LPS elementary students are demonstrating growth in English language arts and math at an average rate among comparable districts. 

LPS middle school students are demonstrating growth at a faster pace than nearly all of the other comparable districts in English language arts and at a faster pace than all of the other comparable districts in math. 

There is some really strong math instruction happening at the middle schools that we will work to replicate across the district. This year’s district Unified Improvement Plan will focus on math instruction. Our elementary teachers are implementing a new math curriculum this fall that we believe will provide a stronger instructional foundation for our younger learners to build upon as they enter higher levels of math in middle and high school. 

On the PSAT and SAT, LPS students demonstrated growth in almost every student subgroup in evidence based reading and writing.  LPS high school students are demonstrating growth in evidence based reading and writing and math at a faster pace than all but four of the comparable districts.

LPS students continue to perform well overall across all tests and grade levels and, more importantly, are demonstrating growth more often and at a faster pace in some areas. We are proud of our students’ and educators’ hard work, which resulted in growth gains across all subgroups.

School teams will drill down into the data to the individual student level to help inform their instructional strategies. This important work will happen through Professional Learning Communities (PLCs ) in our schools.