RANGELY I The Rangely School District results are in, and there are some highs and lows in comparing the students’ scores from last year to the previous year.
The Colorado Department of Education released the 2014 Transitional Colorado Assessment Program (TCAP) results for all Colorado school districts in mid-August. The TCAP test, which was administered to all public school students in March of 2014, tests students in reading, writing and mathematics.
Students are identified as one of four categories in each subject tested; advanced, proficient, partially proficient or unsatisfactory. The Colorado Department of Education then reports the percentages of students in each category as well as the movement of students from one proficiency level to another from year to year.
The drops in Rangely scoring were not unique to the district, as scores statewide were slightly down. The following data reports on movement of students in Rangely from 2012-13 to 2013-14.
At the elementary level, third, fourth and fifth grades were tested with TCAP. The largest gains experienced by Parkview took place in reading.
The third grade had a 6 percent increase in reading proficiency, leaving 75 percent of third-grade students scoring proficient or above, while the fourth grade experienced a 16 percent increase in reading proficiency.
Fourth grade was the only Parkview Elementary grade with an increase in math scores, going up with 10 percent more fourth graders proficient in math than in 2013.
The greatest losses in scores at PVE occurred in students testing proficient or above in math with third grade math proficiency down 14 percent and a 32 percent loss in the fifth grade with 59 percent of fifth graders testing partially proficient or unsatisfactory. Writing also saw several losses with a 16 percent decrease in proficient fourth graders and 18 percent fewer proficient fifth graders.
For the purposes of score reporting, Rangely Junior/Senior High is broken into two schools, middle and high school. At the middle school, all three grades are tested.
In 2013-2014, each of the grades saw little change in reading scores with the exception being a 13 percent increase in the number of eighth grade students scoring advanced. In writing, but the sixth and seventh grades remained fairly level while the eighth grade had a 22 percent decrease in writing proficiency. The seventh and eighth grades experienced a general upward trend in math with fewer students testing unsatisfactory, moving into the partially proficient range.
At the high school level, only grades 9 and 10 are tested via TCAP.
The ninth grade had the greatest loss in math with an additional 17 percent of students testing unsatisfactory.
Tenth-grade reading saw the greatest improvement with an increase of 27 percent of students testing either proficient or advanced.
In 2012-13, 13 percent of the10th grades tested unsatisfactory. However in 2013-14 that score went down to zero, meaning every 10th grade student was at least partially proficient in reading. The same grade experienced similar results in math and writing with fewer testing unsatisfactory than in 2012-13.
Students in Rangely are also tested three times annually with the Measure of Academic Progress (MAPS) program, which provides instant feedback to the teacher regarding student progress.
TCAP scores from 2013-2014 and previous years can be accessed on the Colorado Department of Education website under the heading SchoolView.
