Date: 03/13/2013

Final
Discussion on Achievement Gap

COMMITTEE ON JOINT EDUCATION

Votes: View--> Action Taken:
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07:50 AM -- Discussion on Achievement Gap

Senator Hudak, Chair of the Senate Education Committee, called the meeting to order. Keith Owen, Deputy Commissioner, Colorado Department of Education (CDE), and Jill Hawley, Associate Commissioner, CDE, came to the table. They distributed a handout (Attachment A). Dr. Owen told the committee that his presentation focuses on why the Colorado public education system has a consistently large achievement gap. He stated that it is important to talk about the number of students who are not proficient in certain subject areas, as opposed to only looking at the percentage of students who are not proficient overall. He explained that the number of students who are proficient or advanced in reading and math has remained flat from year to year. Dr. Owen told the committee that Colorado as a whole performs well when looking at overall achievement; however, when achievement is broken down by socioeconomic status, there is a 30 percent gap in reading proficiency, and a 25 percent gap in reading proficiency between minority and non-minority groups. He explained that other sub-groups that show similar gaps in proficiency are English Language Learners and students with disabilities.

13JtEd0313AttachA.pdf13JtEd0313AttachA.pdf

07:57 AM

Senator Hudak asked Dr. Owen to comment on why Colorado's proficiency gap is larger than other similar states. He responded that Colorado not only shows large disparities between sub-groups, such as low income versus non-low income and minority versus non-minority students, but that the gap between the highest performing and lowest performing students is larger in Colorado than other states. The committee discussed the achievement gap in 3rd grade reading and writing. Ms. Hawley explained that there is a significant gap between white low-income students and minority low-income students. Representative Buckner asked if the gap between white and minority students is persistent at each grade level, and asked if poverty is less of a factor than race in student performance. Dr. Owen responded that poverty and race are both factors, and that poverty greatly impacts the gap displayed in each of the sub-groups.


08:08 AM

Committee discussion ensued about the challenges faced by schools in regards to achievement gaps. Senator Todd asked whether there is a difference between younger students who have attended early childhood education programs and those who have not, and whether this continues to have an impact on achievement later in school. Ms. Hawley talked about the achievement gap between students with disabilities and students without disabilities, and stated that the size of the gap varies by type of disability. She stated that districts are starting to focus more on students with specific types of learning disabilities, and added that English Language Learners have seen the most improvement in achievement over time.


08:17 AM

Ms. Hawley explained that a key strategy of CDE is to work with the lowest performing school districts, including priority improvement and turn-around districts, to bring the lowest performing students to proficiency. She stated that raising proficiency will increase the achievement levels demonstrated by the state as a whole.