The release every two years of results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) garners a great deal of attention because the nationally-normed tests, popularly known as the nation’s report card, are rigorous and are comparable across states and school districts.
NAEP results are also highly subject to spin, and this year’s results for Denver Public Schools are no exception. To DPS’s credit, the district presented to its school board a detailed breakdown of the results in late February, which led to a lively discussion among board members.
On one level, DPS has reason to be pleased with the results. Compared to other big-city districts, Denver students, in the aggregate, performed well. It’s when one starts digging a bit deeper that cracks appear in that facade.
First, the good news, which district leaders placed front and center. DPS participates in a subgroup of districts known as the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA). “DPS remains one of the top performers among the 27 districts who participated in the 2024 TUDA…” the district said in its press release. “(DPS) achieved the second highest average eighth grade reading scores and the sixth highest average fourth grade reading scores amongst TUDA districts.”
The district release also points out that in three of four tested areas (fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math), DPS student test performance was “not significantly different” than 2019, pre-pandemic results. Nationally, students haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels on any of the four tests.
“The gains we’ve seen reflect the commitment of our entire community to educational excellence,” DPS Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero said in the press release. “We must continue to push forward, ensuring that even more of our students are equipped and on track for long-term academic success. Every step we take is a step closer to achieving the high standards we’ve set for all of our learners.”
Note how carefully DPS words portions of the release. “DPS achieved the second highest average eighth grade reading results…” The word average does the heavy lifting here.
That becomes clear when examining an independent analysis of the results conducted for the nonprofit advocacy group Denver Families for Public Schools.
The two most problematic takeaways from this analysis:
- Denver’s economically disadvantaged students perform worse than peer students nationally, in Colorado, and across other large cities
- Gaps between these low-income students and their more affluent peers are larger in DPS than nationally, across Colorado, and across other large cities.
In other words, the students that comprise the majority (64 percent) of the DPS population continue to struggle. And the high ranking of DPS compared to other TUDA districts can be explained mostly by the relatively stellar performance of the district’s non-low-income students.
Let’s dig into these two takeaways. First, Denver’s economically disadvantaged students scored below other TUDA-district students on fourth-grade math (19 percent proficient compared to 23 percent proficient), eighth-grade math (9 percent proficient compared to 14 percent proficient), and eighth-grade reading (15 percent proficient compared to 18 percent proficient. Only on fourth-grade reading did DPS at the same level as other TUDA districts among low-income students (both 18 percent proficient).
Step back a moment and ponder those numbers. Just 9 percent of Denver’s low-income eighth-graders are proficient in math. Just 15 percent of low-income eighth-graders can read proficiently.
It’s hard to take solace in the fact that Denver looks good compared to some other cities when the underlying numbers are so bleak.
Second, Denver’s gaps between low-income and non-low-income students remain wider than in most other cities. Low-income DPS students score 48 percentage points below their more affluent peers on fourth-grade math, 42 percentage points on eighth-grade math, 43 percentage points on fourth-grade reading, and 40 percentage points on eighth-grade reading.
These gaps are significantly wider in Denver than in Colorado and the nation as a whole.
For many years, DPS has boasted stellar scores among its more affluent, white, and Asian students. Why the district has struggled more than other urban school systems to transfer that success to the students who need it most remains a puzzle that needs solving.
Now that you’ve come to the end of this quick analysis, go back to near the beginning and reread Marrero’s quote from the DPS press release.
Rings hollow, doesn’t it?
