Colorado elementary, middle and high school students’ academic performance improved over the last year, but it’s still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels. On top of that, there are alarming disparities between students, according to the latest student assessment data released this week by the Colorado Department of Education.
“We certainly are seeing those persistent and troubling gaps,” Colorado's Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said. “We need to double down on addressing the historic gaps between different groups of students. This has been a priority for a long time, but we really need to focus our support and resources on students who need it the most. We certainly are seeing those persistent and troubling gaps.”
The data tracked students at fifteen schools across Colorado over the 2022-2023 academic year. It was the first year schools saw more typical schedules since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is probably our new normal,” Chief Assessment Officer Joyce Zurkowski said. “So we're hoping to find some consistency. Districts and schools are still making instructional adjustments to address the missed learning opportunities that occurred during those pandemic days.”
The largest performance gaps over the 2022-2023 academic year were among Black and Latino students, students with financial barriers, those with disabilities and multilingual students. Black and Latino students as well as students who speak English as a second language saw some of the widest performance gaps, with scores around 35% lower than their peers. Students who qualified for free or reduced school lunches and those on individualized education plans to accommodate disabilities scored around 30% lower than their peers.
The data also highlighted a disparity in performance between female and male students. Boys in Colorado have, on average, surpassed pre-pandemic performance levels, but girls have not. Their overall performance scores over the last year were several percentage points lower than boys.
“It's very good news that we're seeing the rebound for boys,” Córdova said. “That is reason to acknowledge and say something is going better for our boys. When our girls are still decreasing, something's not going right for our girls. We need to have a better understanding of what's happening with girls in the state and to devote more focus and support.”
Boys may have performed better than girls on average, especially in math, but girls outperformed boys in English Language Arts. The assessment report did not include data on nonbinary or LGBTQ+ students.
Colorado student performance also varied by academic subject and grade level, which was measured for third through eighth grade students. Language arts performance levels mostly saw some improvement from the 2021-2022 school year. Elementary school English scores are getting close to pre-pandemic levels, but upper grades are still lagging by several points. Spanish language skills saw an even greater lag. Third graders scored about 9% lower in Spanish than they did in 2019. Only about one in three students are at the level they should be in science.
Students’ math performance, however, saw the most progress, with scores surpassing 2022 levels. They are still lagging behind pre-pandemic levels, however, especially for students in seventh and eighth grades.
Córdova said all of the data included in the assessment report will help her department and state lawmakers use resources effectively to move Colorado’s education system in the right direction.
“It really does provide the roadmap for our schools and districts, as they think about designing their unified improvement plan,” Córdova said. “It gives us information at a state level to determine where we need to place more focus and energy. It really is about sharing the information transparently and understanding what we're seeing in terms of trends and then how we allocate support and resources to districts.”
Córdova credited recent investments from the state for the better-than-expected performance in math. House Bill 1231 passed earlier this year and created a state grant program to support academic acceleration in mathematics. The measure also provided funding for the Department of Education to provide math training for teachers and compile a list of high quality math teaching materials.
