Just released results from statewide spring tests show a slight improvement in Math and English Language Arts for Westminster Public School students, with the district as a whole showing modestly bigger gains than the state of Colorado. 

A look at individual schools and grade level data can be accessed here.

The Colorado Department of Education press release is here.

This is the second year that Colorado returned to traditional Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) administration after the cancellation of the tests in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and modifications in the 2021 test. 

The percentage of WPS students who met or exceeded expectations in Math grew by 1.8 percent compared to 1.4 percent at the state level. In English Language Arts, the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations grew by .9% compared to .5% statewide.

Overall, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations remains higher at the state level than in WPS.

 “We continue to make progress, but the results show that we still have work ahead of us,” said Superintendent Pam Swanson. “Our upward trajectory is encouraging, and the hard work of our students, staff and families is paying off.”

Results also found that, in most instances, achievement scores for students across the state are lower than they were before the pandemic. That trend has been seen nationwide where in some states, scores are continuing to decline.

Also, of note is the Achievement Gap in which multilanguage learners and students with free/reduced status enter school far behind their peers and in many instances fail to make up ground. 

According to the Colorado Department of Education, the persistence of that difference was one of the major findings in this year’s analysis: 

 “Significant gaps remain between student groups based on their race/ethnicity (historically higher and lower achieving groups), free/reduced lunch status, disability and English language proficiency with score gaps ranging from about 20 percentage points to as high as 46 percentage points for English language learners on the fifth grade CMAS ELA test.”

“We are closing that gap, but it is real and it needs to be acknowledged and understood,” said Swanson. “Every year that goes by, I am more and more convinced that our Competency Based System (CBS) is the best approach to ensure that all students reach their full potential.”

CBS requires students to show mastery of a learning topic before advancing to the next learning level.  It recognizes that many students, especially multilanguage learners and students with free/reduced status, enter school far behind their peers.  Last week, the Westminster Public Schools Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution voicing its continued support for CBS.

In addition to CBS, the district continues to focus on learning tools that provide students with opportunities to continue their learning at home and the district is continuing to fund a tutoring program that pays staff and outside educators to teach students outside of traditional classroom hours.