Fewer schools will reach the coveted “green” level on the state performance rankings under changes the Colorado State Board of Education approved Thursday.
The state sorts schools into four rankings based on their students’ scores on standardized tests, and how much students improved compared to the previous year. The rankings are “turnaround” (red), “priority improvement” (orange), “improvement” (yellow) and “performance” (green).
The board voted 5-2 to raised the cutoff score for the performance level by 8% for elementary and middle schools, and to measure whether students are on-track to read and do math at their grade level within the next two years. Staff from the Colorado Department of Education project the changes will cause the number of schools in the performance level to fall, with more schools rated improvement and no effect on lower-ranked schools.
The changes won’t affect schools’ ratings until 2021.
The board started looking at the ranking system about a year ago because of concerns that it was too easy to reach the performance level without effectively teaching all students. About 72% of schools were in the top level last year, though only about 40% of third graders met expectations for grade-level math and reading. The 2019 data hasn’t been finalized yet.
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