CSAP Report

The Jefferson County League of Women Voters adopted a study of the effectiveness of CSAP in Jefferson County Schools at its annual meeting in April of 2004. This would include comparing a school that has demonstrated how CSAP is working effectively and schools where CSAP is not working.

Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) was created as part of education reform legislation, HB93-1313 in 1993.

Costs: CDE pays for all testing materials and shipping. Generally, a staff member coordinates testing in each school, but occasionally a school hires a short-term test coordinator.

Allowances for certain subgroups
So that the needs of certain subgroups are not overlooked, each subgroup’s scores must be broken out of the main body of school scores and identified for their progress or lack of it. The subgroups are:

Schools were expected to improve their CSAP scores by 25% over a three year period, according to the original law. Now the law has been rewritten and schools are expected to attain "reasonable growth" or a year's growth each year.

If a school is converted to a charter school because it has been a failing school for 3 years,

It is in the subgroups (see above “Allowances for certain subgroups”) of Special Education and LEP students in some Jefferson County Schools that are failing to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) expected by NCLB. This failure is not likely to cause these schools to be converted to charter schools, but it does impact money the district can expect from the federal government.

Jefferson County passed a mill levy with a “performance promise” based on the original state law requiring schools to improve CSAP scores “by 25% over three years”. Jeffco's first CSAP scores were so high that a 25% improvement would be beyond the maximum score. Later the law was rewritten to require “reasonable growth” of one year’s growth each year. Jeffco has met the rewritten expectation, but the original “performance promise” limits the amount of district mill levy funds received.

We interviewed the following Jeffco Schools administration staff, and staff at three schools:

Administration: Carol Eaton, Executive Director of Assessment & Research and Sue Larsen, Assessment Specialist

O’Connell Middle School: CSAP coordinator Margaret Barkey and teacher Donna Bright

Molholm Elementary School: Principal Kay Moser and CSAP coordinator Lauri Ullibari and staff

Derived from “Colorado School Accountability Reports”, Denver Post , Dec. 9, 2004

Bear Creek Elementary & Middle School identified factors contributing to their school’s success:

Molholm and O’Connell identified factors beyond their control that affect CSAP performance:

Student Mobility: the turn-over of students, those who leave and others who arrive within a school year.

Children living in low-income families are likely to have disadvantages affecting their education. “Low-income” is defined in schools as children who qualify by family income for the Free and Reduced Price Meals program. (FRM)[8]. The chart on page 4 shows only the percent eligible for free lunches.

· Be less prepared for school when they enter kindergarten, and less prepared for each school day;

· Have lower parent participation at school and lower level of parent education;

· Lack access to health care to address vision, hearing, illness, or developmental delays;

· Have disruptions at home, i.e. frequent moves, substance abuse, and domestic violence (this occurs at all socio-economic levels);

GLOSSARY OF EDUCATION TERMS FOR CSAP UNIT MEETINGS

AYP – Adequate Yearly Progress -- Progress is tied to NO Child Left Behind. The purpose is to measure the progress of all sub-groups (30 students or more) on the CSAP and CSAP-A tests. All schools are expected to have all of their students meeting standards by 2013.

CSAP – Colorado Student Assessment Program – These tests are administered to all children in grades 3 – 10. Students are expected to show that they have acquired knowledge appropriate to each subject tested for that grade level. Tests are given in reading, writing, mathematics and science. The CSAP-A test is administered to those children who are severely handicapped.

LEP – Limited English Proficient – These students have spoken English for three years or less.

Jefferson County allows Spanish speaking students who have been in the system less than three years to take the test in Spanish. Those students who have been there longer and still have not mastered English are nevertheless required to take the test in English. Students who speak other languages may have a translator, if one is available who speaks their language.

KIPP – Knowledge is Power Program – This program is a charter school operator. It was founded in Houston in 1994 and has 38 schools in 15 states and the District of Columbia including one in southwest Denver. The charter has the reputation of sending inner-city students to elite prep schools and colleges. (This is included here as at the unit meetings there will be discussion included regarding the changing of schools to charter schools.)

NCLB – No Child Left Behind – This is a federal program which measures school progress toward the goal of having all students at least partially proficient on the CSAP rests by 2014.

SAR’S – State School Accountability Reports – These reports are provided to parents and the community so that schools may be compared with others in the state. SAR’s include ratings based on CSAP and ACT tests, as well as school safety and improvement from previous years’ tests. Following three years of unsatisfactory ratings, the state converts the school into a charter school. Once a school becomes a charter school, it can never return to public school status. SAR’s are also known as school report cards.

Title I – The largest federal education program, Title I provides federal funding for schools to help students who are academically behind or at risk of falling behind. Funding is based on the number of low-income children in a school (usually those who are eligible for a free or reduced price lunch). Jefferson County in 2002 had 17 elementary schools and one middle school receiving Title I funds. The money may be used to reduce class size, to hire tutors, to run computer labs, to provide activities to involve parents, to purchase materials, to add pre-kindergarten programs, to hire teaching assistants, and to offer professional development.

[1]. Page 57, CDE Student Assessment Unit – September 2004.

[2] A structured math program involving use of manipulatives, worksheets, and memorization tables

[3] Uses explicit phonics and comprehension skills instruction balanced with extensive reading of both decodable texts and quality literature. Produced by Science Research Associates, a division of McGraw Hill Publishing Company.

[4] English as a Second Language

[5] Challenge students are Developmentally Delayed students with an IQ below 50.

[6] Significant Limited Intellectual Capacity (SLIC) with an IQ below 70.

[7] Special Education students may have any of range of learning disorders and disabilities, including but not limited to Significant Identifiable Emotional Disorder” (SEID); and Perceptual Communicative Disability” (PC).

[8] Students eligible for the Free and Reduced Priced Meals Program (FRM) live in families with incomes under 185% of the Federal Poverty Level. For example in 2004, a child living in a family of four with an annual income of less than $34,872 would qualify for FRM.

Committee members: Norma Burg, Walt Heidenfelder, Roberta Kreutzfeld, Gwen Lipkie, Karen Murphy, Elaine Olson, Marcia Schafer, Patty Schoedler, Susan Tyler.

Jefferson County School	Overall Performance 2003-2004	Students Met AYP	Accreditation Status	Student Enrollment Stability	% Eligible for Free lunch	Student Enrollment	Teachers’ Salary (average)
Bear Creek Elementary/Middle	Excellent	100%	Accredited - High Performing	94.7%	14%	1,039	$46,342
O’Connell Middle	Average	83%	Accredited – Academic Watch	92.1%	44%	606	$46,803
Molholm Elementary	Low	94%	Accredited	90.8%	59%	445	$44,387