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A bigger share of Colorado college students met or exceeded state requirements on math assessments in fourth by eighth grade this yr in contrast with 2024. Literacy development was largely flat on the elementary stage, with greater positive aspects for center schoolers.
These findings had been among the many preliminary CMAS outcomes introduced to the State Board of Training Wednesday.
“Math is a fairly thrilling story for us to dig into,” Christina Wirth-Hawkins, chief evaluation officer for the Colorado Division of Training, instructed the board Tuesday.
“We see that throughout the board we’re greater than we had been pre-pandemic, and so we’re actually at a brand new baseline,” she mentioned.
The preliminary outcomes paint an image of sluggish however regular enchancment during the last 4 years — sufficient to assist Colorado college students surpass their pre-pandemic efficiency on eight of 12 core assessments in elementary and center college. On the remaining 4 assessments, the hole between 2019 and 2025 proficiency charges varies. It’s minimal for fifth grade literacy, a bit bigger for eighth grade literacy and math, and largest for fourth grade literacy.
Fourth graders who took state assessments this spring had been preschoolers when the pandemic started.
The brand new knowledge doesn’t reveal how completely different pupil teams — for instance, English learners or college students with disabilities — fared on state assessments or the dimensions of gaps between them. It additionally doesn’t embody district or college stage outcomes. That knowledge will come out in August.
The preliminary outcomes present enhancements in science, particularly for eighth graders whose proficiency charges jumped to 36%, up 4 proportion factors from 2024. College students take state science assessments in three grades: fifth, eighth, and eleventh. Participation is especially low for eleventh graders, with solely half opting to take the check.
Participation on the PSAT and SAT, the opposite state assessments given at the highschool, is way greater — typically about 85%.
After a pair board members requested in regards to the participation disparity between science and the opposite assessments, Wirth-Hawkins mentioned college students are inclined to see the PSAT and SAT as extra related as a result of the exams assist with faculty entrance. The science check, which is required by each the federal and state governments, feels much less related, she mentioned.
On the whole, preliminary 2025 PSAT and SAT outcomes had been a combined bag. On the plus aspect, a bigger share of eleventh graders had been proficient on the studying and writing part of the SAT — almost 62%, in comparison with about 58% in 2024. That bump represents a rebound from final yr, when scores dipped with the transfer to an all-digital check.
Moreover switching to a computer-based format in 2024, the testing time was shortened and studying passages had been shortened to at least one paragraph, with extra passages and just one query per passage.The brand new check additionally was adaptive, which implies that based mostly on how college students do on the primary part, they get both a better or more durable second part.
Colorado eleventh -graders additionally did a bit higher on the maths portion of the SAT this yr, however they’re nonetheless lagging behind their proficiency charges from 2023 previous to the all-digital check. Statewide, solely about one-third of scholars met or exceeded expectations in math, in accordance with the preliminary knowledge.
Ninth graders, who take the PSAT 9, did about the identical on the studying and writing portion of the check in contrast with final yr, and worse on the maths portion. Solely 38% scores proficient in math in 2025, a 12 proportion level distinction in contrast with pre-pandemic scores.
The information is a bit higher for tenth graders in math: Proficiency charges jumped by 2.5 proportion factors. That’s nonetheless under what college students achieved pre-pandemic, however the hole is narrowing. In the meantime, the hole reopened for tenth graders on the studying and writing part of the PSAT 10. It had disappeared final yr, however returned as proficiency charges dropped to 63.5% in contrast with 66% final yr.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, overlaying early childhood points and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
