{"id":45230,"date":"2021-08-12T20:34:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T02:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cmas-results-colorado-students-lost-ground-during-year-of-disrupted-learning\/"},"modified":"2021-08-13T02:34:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T02:34:00","slug":"cmas-results-colorado-students-lost-ground-during-year-of-disrupted-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cmas-results-colorado-students-lost-ground-during-year-of-disrupted-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"CMAS results: Colorado students lost ground during year of disrupted learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Colorado
Colorado students\u2019 performance on state standardized tests declined across the board after a pandemic-disrupted school year. (File photo)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cCMAS results: Colorado students lost ground during year of disrupted learning\u201d<\/a> was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for their newsletters here: ckbe.at\/newsletters\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Colorado students\u2019 performance on state standardized tests declined across the board after a pandemic-disrupted school year, with larger drops for Hispanic students and those from low-income families. The test results provide the first statewide picture of student learning since 2019, as tests were canceled in 2020.<\/p>\n

Data released Thursday<\/a> shows that far fewer students took the tests, and those who did performed at levels last seen five to six years ago. Student performance fell more in math than in literacy, a trend that matches national patterns,<\/a> with the drops particularly pronounced in middle school. Just 29.5% of eighth graders who took the test met or exceeded grade level expectations, a decline of 7.4 percentage points from 2019.<\/p>\n

High school juniors, though, did slightly better on the SAT than their counterparts in 2019.<\/p>\n

The tests administered in spring 2021 were significantly scaled back compared with 2019, and test participation plummeted, particularly in populous Denver metro area districts. That makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions, assessment experts said. But state education officials believe the results would have been even lower if more students participated. Unlike in past years, the test results will not be used to evaluate teachers or to rate schools and districts. The school accountability system is on pause.<\/p>\n

Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes said the results should create a sense of urgency around learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese test results give us sobering data that confirm just how hard last year was with school closures, class quarantines and remote learning,\u201d Anthes said in a statement. \u201cAs students return to school, it is extremely clear that we must accelerate learning more than we have done historically. If we just go back to doing what we have done before, we will not be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(Courtesy
(Courtesy of Chalkbeat Colorado)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado is in the process of finalizing its plans for spending federal relief dollars, and Anthes told the State Board of Education test results can help inform those plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a once in a generation opportunity to support our students, and perhaps an even more than once in a generation need,\u201d Anthes said. \u201cEven I was surprised by our results.\u201d<\/p>\n

District- and school-level data will be released at the end of the month. Parents should receive reports about their children\u2019s individual performance soon.<\/p>\n

Colorado students in grades three through eight typically take literacy and math tests known as the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, or CMAS, along with either a science or social studies test. This year, in a compromise between testing supporters and those who wanted to cancel the tests entirely<\/a>, students in grades three, five and seven took the literacy test, while students in grades four, six and eight took the math test. Eighth graders also took the science test.<\/p>\n

While students took fewer tests, the tests themselves didn\u2019t change, and students were still responsible for the same material.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents may have had reduced or disrupted learning opportunities. Students may have received instruction in new formats. Schools or districts may have chosen to reduce covered content,\u201d said Joyce Zurkowski, chief assessment officer for the Colorado Department of Education. \u201cThe spring test, on the other hand, did not change in content or format.\u201d<\/p>\n

That consistency means the test provides a good measure of whether individual students mastered grade-level material and could be useful for parents and teachers in conjunction with other measurements, said Marianne Perie, an independent consultant who advises states on assessments.<\/p>\n

But low participation makes it much harder to use the test results to make generalizations, which in turn makes it harder to set policy from them, she said. State officials and education advocates have said test results could be used to target money and help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst thing from a policy perspective would be to say, \u2018You as a district did really well so you don\u2019t get additional funds,\u2019 but their 25% most at-risk kids didn\u2019t test and 10% of them weren\u2019t in school at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Perie does not work with Colorado and had not seen Colorado\u2019s results. She spoke with Chalkbeat to answer general questions about assessments in a pandemic.<\/p>\n

Zurkowski said statewide declines don\u2019t mean any particular child lost learning. Rather, the declines mean students as a whole didn\u2019t demonstrate as much knowledge as students who took the test two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results are not making a statement about individual fourth graders, who belong to individual parents, having lost skills,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about the 2021 group compared to 2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Far fewer students took CMAS tests in 2021<\/div>\n

In a typical year, the vast majority of Colorado students take CMAS tests, with participation rates above 95% among elementary students. This year, about three-quarters of third graders took the literacy test, while just 57.9% of eighth graders took their math test.<\/p>\n

\"(Courtesy
(Courtesy of Chalkbeat Colorado)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Black and Hispanic students took the tests at lower rates than their white peers, and students who qualify for subsidized meals \u2013 a measure of poverty \u2013 participated at lower rates than more affluent students. Fewer than 42% of Black eighth graders took the math exam.<\/p>\n

Black and Hispanic parents opted for remote learning at much higher rates than white families, and with no remote testing option, some may have skipped the test rather than send their children into school buildings they didn\u2019t see as safe.<\/p>\n

Low participation rates among students of color correlates strongly with low participation in the more diverse Denver metro area districts, state education officials said. Rural students also participated at rates below the state average, while students in urban and suburban districts outside of Denver participated at somewhat higher rates.<\/p>\n

Low participation by these students makes it harder to reach conclusions about how students who had more disrupted schooling \u2013 whether because their school closed to in-person learning for weeks or months or because poor internet meant they couldn\u2019t attend classes during quarantines \u2013 fared.<\/p>\n

\"(Courtesy
(Courtesy of Chalkbeat Colorado)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
CMAS scores are down across the board<\/div>\n

Among students who took the exam, just 39.1% of third graders met or exceeded grade level expectations in literacy, down 2.2 percentage points from 2019, and just 28.5% of fourth graders met or exceeded expectations in math, a decline of 5.1 percentage points. At the middle school level, 42.6% of seventh graders met or exceeded expectations, down 3.9 percentage points, while eighth grade math dropped 7.4 percentage points with just 29.5% of students at grade level.<\/p>\n

\"(Courtesy
(Courtesy of Chalkbeat Colorado)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The numbers for Black and Hispanic students were more than 20 percentage points lower, reflecting longstanding gaps in test performance that predate the pandemic. On many of the tests, Hispanic students and students from low-income households saw steeper declines than white students or more affluent ones.<\/p>\n

Black students saw smaller declines from 2019 than other student groups on many tests, including third grade reading and eighth grade math. However, they had the lowest participation rates. Of students who took the test, fewer than a quarter of Black third graders met or exceeded expectations in literacy. And just 14.5% of Black eighth graders scored at grade level in math.<\/p>\n

\"(Courtesy
(Courtesy of Chalkbeat Colorado)<\/span>(Courtesy of Chalkbeat Colorado)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"(Courtesy
(Courtesy of Chalkbeat Colorado)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIf we look at the communities that were most impacted by the virus itself, it stands to reason that those were the students who would also be impacted the most,\u201d said Floyd Cobb, executive director of teaching and learning for the state education department. \u201cThose are also families where parents may not have been able to work at home and where students may have had connectivity issues or not had a designated place to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the pandemic, in 2019, students with disabilities and students learning English as a second language scored similarly on state literacy and math tests. But in 2021, the scores of English language learners slipped below those of students with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Zurkowski said she didn\u2019t know why, but she wondered if it was because some districts prioritized students with disabilities for in-person learning.<\/p>\n

State education officials did an analysis that matched the demographics of 2019 and 2021 test-takers and concluded that scores would have been lower if more students took the tests, and that Colorado students have significant ground to make up.<\/p>\n

Colorado did not track which districts spent more time in 100% remote learning, how many students opted for virtual learning in districts that offered in-person instruction, or how many days students spent in quarantines.<\/p>\n

Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association, the state teachers union, said she hopes the public doesn\u2019t judge schools or educators when there was so much variation in learning, even within the same school, that was out of their control.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son had three quarantines, and my daughter had one,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just one family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instructional mode is just one factor that would have influenced student learning, Perie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s hard to quantify is kids who got a decent amount of instruction but they had food insecurity or a parent lost a job or a family member died of COVID,\u201d she said. \u201cThose things are going to affect kids because they\u2019ll have other things on their mind besides school, even if they did get instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not entirely clear why students struggled more in math, but state education officials speculated that students have more opportunities to practice reading and writing at home or in their daily lives and that doing math requires learning many new skills that don\u2019t come up much outside the classroom.<\/p>\n

Lacey Mueller-Taschdjian, a middle school math teacher in the Adams 14 school district, said many students were used to doing long division or drawing graphs on paper pre-pandemic, and the only device they might have used would be a calculator. She used an online platform that let students \u201cwrite\u201d with a mouse while she observed their work in real time, but students were less likely to do math outside of class or using other devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially when they\u2019re texting, they are still writing. When they\u2019re doing other stuff on their phones, they\u2019re still engaging with reading and writing. Not math,\u201d Mueller-Taschdjian said.<\/p>\n

\"(Courtesy
(Courtesy of Chalkbeat Colorado)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"(Courtesy
(Courtesy of Chalkbeat Colorado)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
High school students made some gains<\/div>\n

Test results for high school students taking the PSAT and SAT were more positive, though participation rates also were down. Overall, 10th and 11th grade students had higher average scores than in 2019, although 2019 scores dipped from 2018, and the gains this year did not surpass 2018 scores. In some cases, gains in reading and writing made up for dips in math.<\/p>\n

Racial gaps persisted in this year\u2019s results, but students in many subcategories made gains. For example, of 11th grade students who took the SAT, Black students had an average combined score of 916, up from 899 in 2019, the largest increase. Hispanic students had a combined average score of 910, up from 904; and white students had an average combined score of 1066, up from 1060.<\/p>\n

Students who were ninth graders in the 2020-21 school year struggled more than ninth graders in previous years. The combined average score from their PSAT this spring was 903, down from 906 in 2019.<\/p>\n

Based on score thresholds created by Colorado, 60% of 11th graders who took the test met or exceeded state expectations in reading and writing, up from 58.6% in 2019.<\/p>\n

Debate over value of testing persists<\/div>\n

Colorado school districts, school boards and teachers unions called for the tests to be canceled altogether, while education advocacy groups and Gov. Jared Polis said tests would provide valuable information. While groups on all sides came together to support the reduced-testing compromise, the debate over the meaning of the tests is not over.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the understanding that this past year presented unprecedented challenges, we should still use this information as a tool to understand need and to improve academic outcomes for students,\u201d Stand for Children Colorado Executive Director Krista Spurgin said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Tyler Sandberg, vice president of the conservative education advocacy group Ready Colorado, said the test results show \u201cmass harm\u201d done to children.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never give a test and make all your decisions based on one data point, but it is part of the bigger picture of where kids fell behind and where we owe kids the biggest investment,\u201d he said \u201cQuantifying that is really important. And I think it will light a fire for innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat who pushed to cancel testing, said the results were mostly meaningless, even as she agreed that students need support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny conclusion that we reach from the test data, whether positive or negative, is hopelessly misguided,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Bret Miles, head of the Colorado Association of School Executives, said school districts already know which students struggled more and have used federal money to offer summer school and hire interventionists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the thing about CMAS,\u201d Miles said. \u201cIt\u2019s such an autopsy instead of a checkup. School districts already have a good plan. They were not waiting around for this data to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christine Pitts, a resident policy fellow at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, said district leaders have been \u201cflying blind\u201d for much of the pandemic. While state assessments have limitations, the data should prompt important conversations between school leaders and community members about what students need.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were a superintendent, I would definitely use the state data to provide context for my local assessment data,\u201d Pitts said. \u201cI would not ignore it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers likely will spend the next decade trying to unravel the effects of the pandemic, but Perie said one thing is clear: \u201cWe owe the students more learning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Find full state results here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Melanie Asmar contributed reporting. Chalkbeat is a<\/em> nonprofit news site<\/em><\/a> covering educational change in public schools.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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