In no grade and no subject do a majority of Colorado students meet or exceed expectations on the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) tests. And scores among Black and Hispanic students are especially bad. Bluntly, Colorado schools are failing to deliver a quality education to most students.
The CMAS English and Math tests cover grades 3 through 8; here I’ll use 8th grade numbers to illustrate the problems. This year, 42.8% of eighth graders met or exceeded expectations in English (down from 46.9% in 2019), while only 32.5% met or exceeded expectations in math (down from 36.9% in 2019). As in previous years, third graders did the best in math, with 41.7% meeting or exceeding expectations this year.
A moral crisis
When we look at the breakdowns by “race” the differences are dramatic. In English, while 64.2% of eighth grade Asian students and 55.2% of White students met or exceeded expectations, only 28.8% of Black students and 25.4% of Hispanic students did. In math, while 57.3% of eighth grade Asian students and 45.3% of White students met or exceeded expectations, only 16.7% of Black students and 15.1% of Hispanic students did. The schools are catastrophically failing most Black and Hispanic kids. This is a moral crisis.
We can look at the same problem from the other end by seeing what fraction of students completely bombed the tests. CMAS ranks scores in five categories: did not yet meet expectations, partially met expectations, approached expectations, met expectations, and exceeded expectations. Looking at eighth grade students taking the English test, 9.3% of Asian students, 9.8% of White students, 28.5% of Black students, and 29.1% of Hispanic students got the worst ranking. Looking at eighth graders taking the math test, 11.9% of Asian students, 13.6% of White students, 38.1% of Black students, and 38.7% of Hispanic students got the worst ranking.
One might reply that the dramatic racial disparities reflect, not a failure of the schools, but a deeper failure of society or of politics. Clearly poverty is associated with worse academic outcomes. Among eighth graders taking the English test, 57.2% of those not eligible for free or reduced lunch met or exceeded expectations, compared with 25.6% of students who were eligible. Among eighth graders taking the math test, 46.7% of those not eligible for free or reduced lunch met or exceeded expectations, compared with 15.5% of students who were eligible.
The argument that schools cannot ably compensate for deeper social problems is not exactly a strong point in favor the schools. Aren’t our astonishingly expensive schools supposed to be able to educate students regardless of their background? Given that they apparently are not able to do so, what exactly is the point of spending all that money? Or maybe you want to argue that many students at all levels of achievement would do worse without school. I suppose it depends on the alternatives.
A failure to educate
Chalkbeat lists student performance for every school in the state in English and math, revealing large differences in performance between different districts and schools. For example, in Adams 12, 41.4% of students met or exceeded expectations in English, while 33.3% did in math. For Boulder Valley the numbers are 63.2% and 53.5%. For Cherry Creek, 48.3% and 40.8%. For Colorado Springs, 37.5% and 29.3%. For Denver, 40.7% and 31.2%. For Douglas County, 62.3% and 52.3%. For Jefferson County, 51.8% and 40.7%.
Within Denver County, to take an important example, differences are dramatic between schools. For example, at Cory Elementary, 75.8% of students met or exceeded expectations in English, while 77.3% did in math. Why are the numbers so high? On the school’s web site, Cory describes itself as “an integrated HGT/GT [highly gifted] magnet and neighborhood school.” Still, a quarter of students there aren’t doing so well. Meanwhile, at Barney Ford Elementary, named after the highly successful Black entrepreneur, the numbers meeting or exceeding expectations are 11% and 13.1%.
We can find comparable differences between schools in other districts. For example, the numbers at Marshdale Elementary, in the mountains southwest of Morrison, are 72.8% and 66.2%. At Lumberg Elementary, a dual-language school a few blocks north of Casa Bonita, the numbers are 8.7% and 3.5%. (Obviously, students just learning English are not going to to well on English-language tests.)
I think what’s going on here is pretty obvious: Advantaged students tend to perform well on the tests, while disadvantaged students tend to perform poorly. The schools themselves, despite spending extraordinary amounts of money, have little to do with outcomes.
On the other side, my homeschooled fourth grader has spent not a day in school in his entire life, yet he scored in the top percentile in English and math on a standardized test (not the CMAS). In my son’s case, I suspect he would be doing worse academically had he attended school, because he would have wasted vast amounts of time on tedious nonsense while being stripped of his autonomy. Instead, he spends highly concentrated time on real academics and devotes most of each day to playing with friends or doing his own projects.
I am not saying that schools per se largely are incapable of educating children. I am saying that existing schools largely are incapable. I think schools could be much better. But too many people in our society have a vested interest in pretending that throwing more money at today’s schools somehow will work the wonders we seek, this time. Meanwhile, year after year, far too many children fail to receive the education they so desperately need.
Ari Armstrong writes regularly for Complete Colorado and is the author of books about Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and classical liberalism. He can be reached at ari at ariarmstrong dot com.
