Denver Public Schools students saw increases in overall Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) scores in all three content areas evaluated. CMAS measures student achievement and growth for Language Arts (LA) and Mathematics to all students in grades 3-8, and Science in grades 5, 8 and 11.
“We are excited about the hard work that our students and educators, both at schools and centrally, continue to do to ensure quality learning experiences that yield increased achievement and growth,” said Dr. Alex Marrero, Superintendent of Denver Public Schools. “We acknowledge that there is still work to be done to get our scholars to where we want them to be. We have the staff and systems in place to help our students achieve great things and are dedicated to getting them to help our students thrive.”
The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) also released growth scores for Denver Public Schools. The CDE calculates a measure of year-over-year change in assessment scores as a measure of student growth. Every student with scores in consecutive years is assigned a Student Growth Percentile (SGP) based on how they scored compared to all Colorado students with similar prior year scores. SGPs are then aggregated at the state, district, school, and student group levels to calculate Median Growth Percentiles (MGP) to provide a normative measure of change in assessment scores over time.
When compared to State Median Growth Percentiles, DPS students demonstrated equal or higher growth percentiles across all elementary and middle school content areas.
“I am so proud of our students and educators. We have done quite a bit of work to align with our school communities to establish a vision, key drivers, and clear guidance for Instructional Leadership Teams to continue to develop teacher skill that translates to increased student engagement that yields increased student achievement and continued student growth,” said Dr. Marrero.
Below are some highlights of Denver Public Schools CMAS and Growth data from the 2023-24 school year.
CMAS
Students in grades 3-8 take the grade level LA and Math assessment for their enrolled grade. Students in grades 5, 8, and 11 take the grade level science assessment.
Literacy
This year, 39.7% of students in grades 3-8 Met or Exceeded Expectations compared to 39.4% in 2022-23, a 0.3% point increase (the state average increase was 0.4%).
DPS 5th graders increased 1.6% points where statewide 5th graders decreased. DPS 6th and 7th graders also had increases that exceeded the state average.
2024 DPS and State CMAS results show students LA achievement in grades 3, 5, and 6 are close to or above 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
DPS 5th, 6th, and 7th graders had increases compared to last year that exceeded state's increases.
Across all student groups, the percentage of students who scored Met or Exceeded Expectations in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 increased slightly for all student groups with the exception of Asian, Black, and Students of Two or More Races.
Native American students had the largest increase in the percentages scoring Met or Exceeded Expectations, while Black students had the largest decrease.
Math
DPS students in grades 3-6 show performance within 1% point or even with 2018-19 levels. this is similar to the state.
This year, 31.2% of students in grades 3-8 Met or Exceeded Expectations, compared to 30.3% in 2023-24, a 0.9% point increase. For comparison the state average was 1.9%
Students in grades 3-5 increased 0.5% points and students in grades 6-8 increased 1.1% points.
Across the State and DPS, students in grades 7 and 8 have larger lags in performance, below 2019 rates at 2% points and 4% points, respectively.
Area for improvement -
DPS 3rd and 8th graders decreased slightly while the state saw improvement in both grade levels.
Across all student groups, the percentage of students who scored Met or Exceeded Expectations in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 increased for all student groups with the exception of Black (-0.3%) and Native Hawaiian/PI (-2.1%) students.
Asian students had the largest increase (3%) in the percentages scoring Met or Exceeded Expectations.
Science
For all students (grades 5th, 8th, and 11th), 26.1% Met or Exceeded Expectations. A 1.9% improvement.
Both 5th and 8th grade had an increase in the percentage of students that Met or Exceeded Expectations, with 5th grade increasing by 6.5% points, a larger improvement than the state.
DPS 11th grade students decreased the number of students who Met or Exceeded Expectations by 1.4% points, while the state saw a slight increase at 0.5%.
Growth
Overall
Compared to State MGP, DPS demonstrated equal or higher growth percentiles across ALL elementary and middle school content areas.
High school Math MGPs increased overall and among all race/ethnicity groups, with an overall MGP of 47 (three points higher than in 2022-23).
MGPs for Black students increased in high school in both Literacy and Math and exceeded the state's MGPs, with a Literacy MGP of 52 (six points higher than 2022-23) and a Math MGP of 49 (seven points higher than 2022-23).
MGPs for Native American/Alaskan Native students also increased among all grade levels and content areas. Although this student group is small (fewer than 130 students in elementary/middle and 70 students in high school), these increases are still notable. Our growth percentiles for in-program multilingual learners and students with IEPs exceeded the state average in Literacy.
In Math, students with IEPs exceeded the growth average for the state, and in-program multilingual learners demonstrated equal growth to the state's average.
Literacy
The 2023-24 DPS MGP for Grades 4-8 is 54, one point higher than last year’s MGP and four points higher than the state's MGP (50).
In elementary, the MGP decreased by one point to 51, but still matched the state's MGP (51).
The middle school MGP is 56, an increase of three points from the previous year and seven points higher than the state's MGP (49). In addition, this MGP represents a return to the pre-pandemic level from 2018-2019.
Opportunity for improvement - In high school, the DPS MGP is 47, a three point decrease from the previous year (50) and also lower than the state's MGP of 49.
Math
The 2023-24 DPS MGP for grades 4-8 in Math is 53, equal to last year’s MGP and three points higher than the state's MGP (50).
In elementary school, the MGP is 53, a one point increase from last year, and two points higher than the state's MGP (51). The elementary school MGP of 53 exceeds the pre-pandemic MGP of 52.
In middle school, the MGP remained steady at 53, which is higher than the state's MGP of 50.
Opportunity for improvement -
In high school, the Math MGP is 47, a three point increase from the 2022-23 MGP of 44, but still lower than the state's (50).