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I’ve been keeping tabs on how schools grow in numbers of students at or above proficiency level over time.   Now, I’m not a fan of CSAP, and it’s only an indicator, but I like to keep in mind how schools perform according to the numbers of kids in the building compared to how many are testing at or above the state measurement for proficiency.

I’m sharing a quick sampling of how schools in southwest Denver are testing in the reading CSAP.  These numbers are an aggregate of grades 3-5, keeping in mind that the first time a kid takes the CSAP is in third grade.  I don’t care so much about the school performance framework and its blue-green-yellow-orange-red rating system.  What I’m more concerned about is how individual schools move their students toward proficiency.  The golden number is 50% of all students at proficiency, and of course, anything above 50% is great.

These are the top 5 elementary schools in southwest Denver in terms of growth of numbers of students at or above proficiency in the CSAP reading test.  Keep in mind that the Board of Education has set the growth rate for the Denver Plan at 3.5% per year.

  • 5th place: Munroe Elementary, 2009-2011 rate of change: 2% growth
  • 4th place: Traylor Elementary, 2009-2100 rate of change: 3% growth
  • 3rd place: Knapp Elementary, 2009-2011 rate of change: 5% growth
  • 2nd place: Godsman Elementary, 2009-2011 rate of change: 6% growth
  • 1st place: Doull Elementary, 2009-2011 rate of change: 7% growth

A few tidbits about Doull…

As of the 2009-2010 school year (the newer data is being updated), Doull (pronounced “dowl”) had 494 students, nearly 91% of which were low-income, nearly 80% were minority and 60% were English learners. This says that in spite of poverty, culture and second language, Doull’s students perform twice as well as the Denver Plan’s goals.

Awesome!

 

More cool data to come…