The Summit School District Board of Education and district staff members hashed through achievement and performance framework at a Sept. 19 meeting where the importance of clearly defined success criteria took center stage.

At the beginning of each school year, the Colorado Department of Education releases the preliminary School Performance Framework and District Performance Framework ratings from the prior year. Accreditation status is broken up into six categories: insufficient data, accredited with turnaround plan, accredited with priority improvement plan, accredited with improvement plan, accredited and accredited with distinction.

The scores are based on a 100-point scale for both the district rating at-large and individual school rating.

The results of standardized tests administered to students determine these ratings. Individual academic achievements of a student, whether the student is exceeding grade level expectations and how their test scores compare to other students their age are the major determining factors. 

For grades 3-8, the test is the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) and for grades 9-11, the tests are the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).

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<figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A screenshot from a Colorado Department of Education website shows how the state categorizes schools and districts based on different rating scales.</figcaption><figcaption>Courtesy illustration/Colorado Department of Education</figcaption>

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One area that saw a decrease across all populations was achievement for postsecondary PSAT and SAT testing for math. Where 34.7% of all postsecondary students in Summit met or exceeded expectations for the 2022-23 school year, just 26.3% met or exceeded expectations for the 2023-24 year. 

Chief transformation officer, Laura Cotsapas, who presented the results at the meeting, said a strong area of growth at the elementary level was improvement in English Language Arts for Hispanic students, students who qualify for free and reduced lunch and students in special education. 

She pointed to the district’s Special Education Director Ellen Clark’s work last school year as a reason these particular students saw growth. She said Clark’s work to ensure students felt like they belonged and had equitable access to learning and resources helped students feel like they could be successful and the results were shown in improved scores. 

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<figcaption class="wp-element-caption">This graph demonstrates the improvement made at the elementary level for testing scores. White students were the only group that didn’t see improvement. </figcaption><figcaption>Summit School District/ Courtesy illustration</figcaption>

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Board members asked about professional development from a teacher’s standpoint and what systems were in place to work on improvement. 

Cotsapas said the district will continue to focus on making rigor, or a standard of learning where students are able to learn at a high level and critically think, accessible to all students. This was also a goal last year and she said they are building on that even further. 

“Our students deserve better right now, and we’re really focused on staying the course, replicating the practices where we saw this really great impact,” she said, noting it takes a “long time to turn a ship.” 

The district aimed to remove any barriers to rigor through scaffolding, a system where a student gradually receives less guidance from an educator as they become more confident in their skills and ability to figure things out.  

Cotsapas said this year the district is keeping that foundation and developing success criteria to clearly outline goals. She added a priority of this effort is communicating the “why” behind learning to students to get them more invested in progressing. An important part of communicating the “why,” she said, is taking into account a student’s background and knowledge bases and not relying on a blanket approach for all students. 

Cotsapas said there will be teacher-led sessions for some professional development days where teachers who have found success scaffolding and improving their student’s progression will share what has worked for them. 

She added the district is working on creating consistent norms for standard-base grading, which according to the district’s site “focuses on learning based on a demonstrated understanding of specific concepts which increases student achievement.” In other words, more emphasis is placed on detailed feedback.

Cotsapas said standard-based grading is “inconsistently implemented across the district” and it is a future goal of district.