The scores from the Colorado Student Assessment Program released yesterday revealed that only 21 percent of the 221 eighth-grade students in Re-1 were proficient in math, and 34 percent proficient in science.

As a whole, students across the state did not fare much better.

Of the 53,536 eighth-graders who took the exam in March, only one-third met the proficiency standards in math. Nearly 27,520 students, 55 percent of those tested, also did not perform at the levels specified in Colorado’s Science Standards.

Males scored 8 percent higher than females on both exams. Minorities at Cortez Middle School scored significantly lower than their peers. Of the 31 Hispanic students who took the exam, nine proved proficient in science and six in math. In addition, none of the 40 Native Americans who were tested were proficient in math, and only one student was proficient in science.

Lower minority scores worry both school administrators and board members.

"We are having trouble finding diverse professionals that are out there and available to do a better job teaching our different ethnic groups," said board president Steve Hinton.

George Schumpelt, assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and special programs, said that the school has been trying to recruit teachers within these ethnic groups to help minority students. "We’re going to different recruiting fairs around the U.S. where higher percentages of these teachers attend and graduate," he said.

Hinton said that the school district is also focusing attention on pivotal learning years in early elementary school.

"We’ve got to get a better start with our little people, because we’re not getting them off on the right foot," he warned. One way to help smaller children learn, Hinton suggested, was to provide smaller class sizes so that teachers have more time to focus on each student.

Schumpelt said that he was surprised at the science levels, since students in the district have traditionally performed well on national standardized tests. He said the Plan exam, a national standardized test given at the end of the sophomore year, showed that 70 percent of district students were at or above the 50th percentile in science reasoning last year.

But he did confirm that district students have had problems with math on other standardized exams, including the ACT.

However, Schumpelt was quick to defend the district’s teachers.

"I think our teachers are all giving 100 percent," he said. "Our goal is to work smarter, not harder."

Although Gov. Bill Owens has threatened to decrease funding for schools that are not performing to proficiency, Hinton said that the school board would make sure that the district’s public schools would be fully funded.