PRESS RELEASE                                          

May 1, 2008

Contact: Brooke Skjonsby

970.328.4806 (office)

303.884.8299 (cell)

Eagle, CO--The Colorado Department of Education released the results of 2008 3^rd grade CSAP reading results today and Eagle County Schools’ English-speaking students scored 81 percent Proficient or Advanced. This group of students includes native English speakers of all ethnic groups, as well as native Spanish speakers who have attained Fluent English Proficiency.  Impressively, nearly every one of Eagle County Schools’ English-speaking third graders took the CSAP test this year. “We are working diligently towards achieving the Board of Education goal of all students reading at grade level by 4^th grade,” comments Interim Superintendent John Pacheco. 

Overall, Eagle County Schools averaged 68 percent Proficient or Advanced, which nearly mirrors the language profile of the District. 67 percent of Eagle County Schools’ students are English speakers, while 33 percent are Non-English or Limited English Proficient. Eagle County has an exceptionally higher number of Non-English and Limited English Proficient students than the state, which reported 12 percent Non-English or Limited English Proficient students in 2008.  Seventy percent of all state 3^rd graders scored Proficient or Advanced on 2008 Reading CSAP, a slight decrease from seventy-one percent in 2007. “We continue to make strides in closing the achievement gap and working to bring our Non-English and Limited English-speaking students to the level of our English speakers,” states Heather Eberts, Executive Director of Elementary Education.

Individual school results also mirror the language makeup of each school, however modifications in programming have reflected an extensive improvement in student achievement data. At Avon Elementary, 80 percent of 3^rd graders are Non-English or Limited English Proficient, the highest of any of our schools; impressively, 55 percent of their students who took the test in English scored Proficient or Advanced on CSAP. Notably, schools such as Avon Elementary proved to be stories of celebration this year in that more children were administered the Lectura, which is the Spanish version of the reading assessment, and our English Language Learners are performing well above state averages. After-school literacy and summer reading programs, in conjunction with Saturday school and the Dual Language program model, have collectively contributed to the success of those schools with extremely high populations of English Language Learners.

Below is a table that shows the Proficient/Advanced Scores of each of our schools, along with the percent of English-speaking students in that school.

*English Language Learners at Avon Elementary and Edwards Elementary who took the Lectura did extremely well this year, scoring 81% and 73% Proficient or Advanced, respectively. By law, the state does not report data for groups of fewer than 16 students; due to the fact that not all schools meet this requirement, these numbers were left out of the chart above for accurate comparison purposes.

Six of our nine schools showed impressive increases this year. Brush Creek Elementary had the highest scores in the District at 92 percent Proficient/Advanced, followed by Eagle County Charter Academy, with 88 percent of students scoring Proficient/Advanced, up four percent from last year. Avon Elementary showed an extraordinary increase in the percentage of students scoring Proficient/AdvancedAdvanced from 21 to 55 percent, boasting a 34 percentage point increase over last year. Edwards Elementary increased the percentage of Proficient/Advanced students from 45 to 55 percent.

“All in all, we are pleased with the results,” comments John Pacheco. “With CSAP testing beginning in 3^rd grade, this is our first look at how this particular group of students performs.  With more Spanish-speaking students attaining Fluent English Proficiency each year and incredible programs in place at our schools, the future looks extremely bright.”