The Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 results in the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program, formally called the CSAP test, was mostly flat from last year, according to statistics from the Colorado Department of Education.
The TCAP tests students proficiency and advanced status from third to 10th grade in reading, writing and math. Science scores were also given for fifth, eighth and 10th grade students.
Re-1 broke down the results from 2005 to 2012 in a spreadsheet that will be presented to its board on Aug. 21.
Superintendent Alex Carter said he wasnt surprised that the results closely mirrored the 2011 scores.
He said the district did not change its practices or procedures from 2011 to 2012, so expecting to see big improvements with a model that failed to produce them before would have been wrong.
He also said comparing the scores of students would be a little like comparing apples to oranges because they are different students, meaning fourth-grader this past year were third-graders in 2011 or fifth-graders in 2011 would be compared to the students in the sixth grade and so on.
The hope, he said, is that the scores will now start to improve since Re-1 is changing its instructional model.
Some of those changes include going back to a five-day school week and different programs aimed at improving performance.
If we are flat next year we will have to look at some solutions, Carter said. We are going to do better in every level. We have got a plan to help us do better. We have got some real strategies of how we are going to make this so students have a better chance while eliminating the limitations.
He hopes to get the school district to improve instruction through the additional professional development teachers will be receiving for the upcoming school year.
This year, teachers will receive 90 minutes a week in professional development.
In the TCAP scores, the biggest increase in reading proficient or advanced for the district was 5 percent for fifth-graders, going from 49 to 54 percent.
Those same students as fourth graders also had a 49 percent proficient/advanced reading on that level.
The highest reading proficient/advanced percentage in the district belonged to the 197 sixth-graders at 60 percent, which was still 14 percentage points below the state average of 74.
TCAP results also showed that writing was the subject with the lowest scores in the district, as the proficiency/advanced scores ranged from 26 percent with last years fourth-graders, to 45 percent for the students now in eighth grade.
The biggest decrease was at the sixth-grader level as the proficient/advanced writing percentage dropped from 50 to 34 percent.
Carter pointed out that only 36 percent of these same students scored as either proficient or advanced as fifth-graders, so the 16 percent decrease was a little misleading.
CDE reported that the state average in writing for students scoring proficient/advanced is 52 percent.
Math TCAP scores in the district ranged from 20 percent in the 10th grade to 62 percent for proficient/advanced skills.
The 20 percent for 10th grade was a 7 percent increase from how 10th-graders fared in 2011. The state average for proficient/advanced skills was 72 percent.
Carter said he was somewhat pleased with the science score improvements in his district. Fifth-grade proficient/advanced scores improved from 27 to 30 percent, the 194 eighth-graders saw their percentage decrease from 33 to 31 percent.
The percentage for last years 10th-grade science students who scored either proficient or advanced increased from 30 to 39 percent. The state average is 49 percent.
Carter added that the scores are just one aspect the CDE looked at before mandating the district improve in five years or lose its accreditation
While Carter said he would be extremely surprised if the TCAP scores do not increase for next year, he does not expect to see substantial leaps in scores because it will take time.
michaelm@cortezjournal.com