MEEKER I The Meeker School District’s 2014 Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) results were released by the Colorado Department of Education last month. Students around the district were tested in reading, writing and math and scored by the state as either advanced, proficient, partially proficient or unsatisfactory.
The test was given districtwide in March with scores reported as a percentage of students proficient in each subject as well as the movement of students across the scoring categories from 2013 to 2014.
Meeker Elementary School tested students in the third through fifth grades.
In reading, fourth and fifth grades saw a greater number of students testing proficient, with the largest gain being the fourth graders’ improvement of 17 percent more students scoring proficient.
In contrast the fifth grade reading scores were down, with 24 percent fewer students testing proficient and moving down to partially proficient or unsatisfactory. Writing scores looked very similar, with the third and fourth grades having more students test as proficient and above while the fifth grade lost 28 percent, falling below proficient.
The largest difference at the elementary school was third grade math with 41 percent of students testing advanced and another 41 percent placing proficient. Fourth grade also tested well in math with 83 percent of students scoring either proficient or advanced. Once again, the fifth grade was the anomaly with a loss of 18 percent of students testing proficient or higher leaving 47 percent of students scoring below proficient.
Barone Middle School tests sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
The sixth grade experienced growth in math and writing with an 8 percent increase in proficient math students and a 10 percent increase in writing proficiency. The class also had no students test unsatisfactory.
Seventh grade was fairly level across all three tested subjects with a 1 percent change from proficient to advanced in reading, a 1 percent loss from proficient to partially proficient in writing and a 6 percent increase to advanced in math.
The eighth grade experienced a loss of advanced students moving down to proficient in all three areas. Reading had a 9 percent loss to proficient or lower, writing saw 18 percent of the students moving downward and math experienced an 8 percent loss of advanced students with an 8 percent gain in unsatisfactory students.
Meeker High School tests only ninth and 10th grades with TCAP.
The ninth grade class had increased growth in all three subjects. Ninth grade reading saw increases across the board with 12 percent more students testing proficient in 2014. Writing was similar with a 10 percent gain of students testing advanced and no students scoring unsatisfactory. Math also had more students testing advanced by 11 percent with 32 percent of students testing proficient or advanced in the subject.
While the ninth grade saw upward movement in scores, the 10th grade experienced the opposite.
In reading, 15 percent fewer students tested proficient and math had a 13 percent loss of proficiency. Writing saw similar results with a decrease of 11 percent of students moving from proficient to partially proficient or unsatisfactory.
The 2013-2014 school year was the end of the TCAP test in Colorado.
In the 2014-2015 school year, districts will move to the nationalized Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which is aligned with the state-adopted Common Core standards.
Full 2013-2014 TCAP results may be viewed on the Colorado Department of Education website under the heading SchoolView.
