The Re-1 school district showed a slight rebound, 3 percent, in its third-grade Colorado Student Assessment Program reading-proficiency scores after last year’s plummet of 10 percent.

Last year, 52 percent of the district’s third-graders tested at reading-proficiency level or above, down from 62 percent in 1999. This year, the district recorded a 55-percent third-grade reading proficiency, compared to the state average of 72 percent proficient.

Re-1 Superintendent Bill Thompson and Assistant Superintendent George Shumpelt were quick to point out that the comparisons were not representative of student growth, or the lack thereof, from one year of school to the next, but rather a comparison of last year’s second-graders to this year’s fourth graders. The tests were administered in February.

"We know we need to continue to strive to improve," Thompson said. "I don’t think it matters whether we’re at the 55th percentile or the 85th percentile. The goal always is to continue to improve and make our kids better learners and life-long learners."

Factors such as bumping the testing dates up a full two months, and changes in what is deemed proficient by the state, make the results difficult to interpret, Shumpelt said.

"They lost two full months of instruction this year," he said.

The state is also in the process of adjusting CSAP testing so that it will follow students throughout their educational careers, making progress comparisons possible rather than simply showing how one crop of students measures up to another, Shumpelt added.

However, in comparison to statewide proficiency, other factors such as the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students in the Re-1 district put the district at a scoring disadvantage with as many as 55 percent of the students qualifying as "at-risk" — a figure determined by the number of students eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches.

Shumpelt said the correlation between at-risk students and lower test scores is well grounded in research, and in turn dramatically affects the district’s CSAP results.

Testing at the top of the district was Lewis-Arriola Elementary with 72 percent of the students at or above proficiency. That score is down from 91 percent in 2000 and 96 percent in 1999.

Thompson said the obvious advantages of small classrooms and parental interest played into the rural school’s high marks as well as the fact that every third-grader there took and completed the test.

Attendance influences the school’s score considerably, Thompson said, because any student who does not take the test in its entirety receives a zero that is factored in with the other scores.

Finishing with the least number of proficient third-grade readers was Mesa Elementary at 43 percent, though that number is up from 34 percent proficiency last year.

Pleasant View, Lakeview, Downey and Battle Rock elementary schools did not have CSAP scores included in the district average because they had fewer than 15 third-graders — a disappointment, Shumpelt said, because the 14 Downey students who took the test came in at 86 percent proficiency.

Kemper Elementary third-graders tested at 47 percent reading proficiency — 13 percent lower than the children who took the test last year. And making an 11 percent better showing than last year’s students, Manaugh third-graders tested at 53 percent proficiency.

The district average, Thompson said is derived by averaging each student’s score, not by averaging each school’s average.

According to the CSAP results, Caucasian students in the district tested at 69 percent proficiency, compared to 60 percent in 2000 and 74 percent in 1999. Hispanic students tested at 54 percent proficient as opposed to last year’s 52 percent. Native American third-graders were reported to be at the lowest proficiency yet, finishing at 21 percent proficiency in contrast to 34 percent in 2000 and 26 percent in 1999.

This year, just as every year recorded in the past, female third-graders tested significantly better than their male classmates with 63 percent proficiency versus 45 respectively.

Thompson said the potential fall-out of CSAP results weighs heavily on what state legislature does in the next few days.

"We won’t really know until Tuesday," Thompson said.

CSAP scores may be used to determine state funding and schools consistently scoring below proficiency will possibly be turned into charter schools, Thompson said. It is unclear how Re-1’s CSAP results will play out in that respect.

From attendance to parental involvement and staff development to after-school programs, Thompson and Shumpelt said the district plans to focus on some core issues in order to make improvements on the CSAP scores.