CSAPS Smile on Telluride

Schools Score High on Standardized Tests   

The Telluride Daily Planet
Published:7/31/07

By Matthew Beaudin

Telluride continues to outperform a great majority of school districts across the state in standardized tests and also shows some academic growth while performance across the state was flat on the 2007 tests, new data shows.

The Colorado Student Assessment Program, or CSAP, results trickled into district offices late last week, bearing good news. The Telluride Elementary School scored “high” this year, same as last, and showed “stable” growth. Both the middle and high schools scored “excellent” by state standards. The middle school showed “significant improvement” over last year while the high school’s gains remained “stable.”

The results come as both good news and respite from worry.

Seth Berg, see, has no reason to worry. Until mid summer, that is, when CSAP results come back. Berg manages the curriculum in one of the most successful school districts in the state, and yet he worries. Every year.

They are seen as benchmarks by some and banes by others, but standardized tests are, for now, how a school district is measured and weighed.

“There’s a lot of anticipation,” Berg said. “Then they come and we look at them and say ‘phew,’ everything is fine.”

Everything’s fine, indeed.

Telluride averaged nearly 20 percent higher on the tests than the state average, Berg said, and outperformed neighboring schools in Norwood and Ridgway.

“The first impression is good as always,” Berg said. He mentioned that in the 9th and 10th grade reading tests Telluride students placed at 90 percent proficiency.

“And that makes us feel like the whole program is working, bottom to top,” he said. “For us it’s a relief that things are working.”

For twelve hours in march, students across the state, grades 3 through 10, wedge into schools to take a the federal and state mandated CSAP.

The test, piloted in 1999, determines proficiency in writing, math, reading and science. Colorado teachers develop the standardized test, and the state and federal governments use results to determine what, if any, changes will be required in schools or curriculum. The test is also a way for education administrators at the state level to gauge individual district and hold teachers accountable for their classroom performance. The increased standardized testing is a brainchild of No Child Left Behind and aims for proficient scores by all students by 2013.

The test can have consequences for districts that fall below state mandates, such as funding decreases or even closures, but for Telluride the tests are usually an occasion for two things: celebration and mountains of statistical data that Berg and the District use to ensure they’ll score well the next time around.

Mary Rubadeau, the superintendent of the R-1 School District said the performance was, in general, strong.

“The CSAPS, again this year, are strong across the board,” she said. We’re tremendously proud of our students.”