Colorado students are performing better in reading and math than kids in other states

Colorado middle school students are outpacing their peers in other states in reading and math while elementary schoolers are also outperforming other kids in reading and staying on par with their counterparts in math, according to national test results from 2024 released Wednesday morning.

Still, Colorado students’ test results in reading continue to trail behind 2019 scores, before the pandemic, Colorado Department of Education data shows.

The test results come from an assessment commonly known as “The Nation’s Report Card,” or the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The U.S. Department of Education tests samples of fourth graders and eighth graders in reading and math across the state and country every other year to gauge how well they are comprehending core subjects. 

The national exam is the “only common measurement tool” across states to help them understand how their students are performing in school compared to kids in other states, said Christina Wirth-Hawkins, chief assessment officer for CDE.

“While we’re happy to see that we’re outpacing the nation in most cases, we also see that we haven’t passed our pre-pandemic levels,” Christina Wirth-Hawkins told The Colorado Sun. “And so we know that there’s still work to be done. Even pre-pandemic we weren’t quite where we wanted to be and that’s kind of a benchmark that we’re continuing to look to to see where we are right now.”

NAEP reading scores among Colorado students in fourth and eighth grade mirror results from 2022, with a higher percentage of kids meeting or exceeding basic and proficient levels in reading than the national average on the national exam, according to the state education department. Even with that achievement, however, students are not as strong in reading as they were in 2019.

While 36% of Colorado fourth graders demonstrated or exceeded proficiency in reading on the 2024 NAEP exam, 30% of fourth graders nationwide achieved or exceeded proficiency. In eighth grade reading, 34% of Colorado students met or surpassed proficiency on the NAEP test, compared to 29% of students nationally.

Math outcomes show that Colorado students in both grades are performing similarly to students in 2022. Fourth graders have rebounded in math, with their test performance resembling results from 2019. Those students are essentially staying neck and neck in math with the national average score. Data shows that 42% of Colorado students in fourth grade demonstrated or exceeded proficiency in math on the 2024 NAEP test, slightly higher than 40% of fourth grade kids nationwide.

Meanwhile, eighth grade students who took the national test in Colorado performed better than their peers in math but have yet to catch up to eighth grade math scores from 2019, data shows. While 33% of Colorado eighth graders met or surpassed proficiency in math on the 2024 NAEP exam, 27% of eighth graders across the country achieved or exceeded proficiency.

“Colorado students and teachers have worked hard, and we’re proud our students are outperforming the national average,” Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said in a statement. “Today’s fourth and eighth graders have overcome pandemic challenges, but learning gaps remain for some groups, like students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and those from underserved communities. We must keep working to close these gaps so all students can succeed.”

Colorado fourth- and eighth-graders who qualify for free or reduced lunch — a federal metric of poverty — as well as students with special needs, kids learning English and Black and Hispanic students continue to trail behind their peers across the country. Students in those individual groups who took the NAEP exam in Colorado posted lower average scores in both reading and math, compared to kids from other states.

Some of those gaps are more serious. Gaps between kids with and without disabilities are more significant in Colorado than the national average, according to the state education department. The same is true for the gap between students learning English and kids whose first language is English.

The gap between Hispanic students and their white peers is markedly higher in the state when it comes to reading in both fourth and eighth grades and math in fourth grade. Similarly, the performance gap in Colorado is higher than the national average when it comes to reading and math among fourth graders living in poverty and their more affluent peers.

Those gaps didn’t surprise state education officials, Wirth-Hawkins said, since they’ve been “persistent for a long time.” 

“It’s definitely speaking to we need to not let up our focus and do everything we can to make sure that these student populations are receiving the support that they need to get to where they need to be and so that we can start closing these achievement gaps,” Wirth-Hawkins said.

In eighth grade reading, meanwhile, the gap between white and Black students in Colorado is much smaller than the national gap, results show.

Student achievement on NAEP largely reflects test outcomes from Colorado standardized assessments, the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, the state education department noted in a news release. CMAS results from spring 2024 point to Colorado students in many grades making strides in reading and math, with some grades still showing worrisome declines in reading and math. CMAS outcomes also revealed specific groups of students — including students of color, kids with disabilities, children in low-income households and students learning English — continued to perform behind their peers.

Wirth-Hawkins attributes some of those deficits to the pandemic, which affected many of these students more than their classmates. Some students from families struggling to make ends meet throughout COVID, for instance, had to pick up jobs to help bring in more income.

“It’s a matter of kind of catching up,” she said.

Gov. Jared Polis applauded Colorado’s progress but also raised concerns about “struggling students” during a virtual panel discussion Wednesday afternoon with the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Polis, who launched an initiative to improve education outcomes as chair of the National Governors Association, called the achievement gap between high-performing students and those falling behind “simply unacceptable” in the U.S. He highlighted a need for quality preschool programs, evidence-based tutoring, after-school programs and innovative school models.

“This moment I hope is a catalyst for innovation, doing things differently, expanding or replicating what works and having the moral fortitude to change what isn’t working,” Polis said.