Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.New state test results show math scores continued to rise for Colorado elementary and middle school students, with eighth graders making the biggest gains year over year. But literacy test results were uneven. Fourth and fifth graders’ reading and writing scores ticked up, while middle schoolers’ results fell across the board.The data, released Wednesday, comes from last spring’s Colorado Measures of Academic Progress, or CMAS. Students in grades 3 through 8 take the tests, which serve as a benchmark for how well Colorado kids are learning. The story of the latest scores “is one of progress, but also one of continued work ahead,” said Christina Wirth-Hawkins, chief assessment officer for the Colorado Department of Education.Middle school literacy likely falls into the second category. The percentage of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders meeting or exceeding state expectations declined. While 44.2% of sixth graders met that benchmark in 2025, only 41.6% did in 2026, the data shows. In a press conference, Education Commissioner Susana Córdova offered a possible explanation. Colorado has put significant focus on helping young students learn to read, but those same techniques aren’t emphasized in middle school, she said.“I was a middle school and a high school teacher,” Córdova said. “Most of your coursework to become a teacher is about teaching literature, teaching nonfiction, and less about teaching phonics or filling in the gaps when kids are struggling.”The focus on early literacy might be paying off for upper elementary students, state officials said. About 50% of fifth graders statewide met or exceeded expectations on the state literacy test, up from 48% the year before, the data shows. Fourth graders’ scores jumped the most, from 42% meeting or exceeding expectations last year to 47% this year.Math scores were up across the board. Eighth-grade results increased the most, going from 34.7% of students meeting or exceeding expectations last year to 37.8% this year.Córdova said Colorado students had the most ground to make up in math after scores plummeted during the pandemic. “For many students, math might have been harder to stick with during the school disruptions of the pandemic,” Córdova said. She referred to the year-over-year improvement as “stair-step gains.”Students who are approaching expectations can readStudents don’t pass or fail the state tests. They score in one of five categories: did not meet, partially met, approached, met, or exceeded expectations. To gauge whether students are on track, Colorado calculates the percentage who met or exceeded expectations. But this year, state officials emphasized that students who score in the approaching expectations category may still be performing near grade level. Students who are approaching expectations in literacy can read grade-level texts, Wirth-Hawkins said. But they may struggle to consistently demonstrate their understanding or express their knowledge in writing, which is also part of the literacy test, she said.While just 40.8% of third graders met or exceeded expectations in literacy this past spring, that percentage jumped to 60.5% when accounting for students who approached expectations.Test scores varied by school district and student demographicsBig test score gaps remained based on students’ race, family income, disability status, and whether they are learning English as a second language.For instance, about 50% of white students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded expectations in math statewide, compared with 21.6% of Black students and 19.4% of Hispanic students.Colorado also calculates how much progress students make compared with students who had similar scores the year before, a measure it calls growth. Elementary school girls showed above-average growth this past spring in both literacy and math.Test scores varied by school district. In math, 118 districts saw an increase in the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations, while 66 saw a decrease.In literacy, 88 districts saw an increase and 96 saw a decrease. Those counts include boards of cooperative education services, or BOCES. Scores for more than a dozen districts or BOCES were suppressed in the state data because so few students took the tests.Literacy and math scores for the state’s largest school district, Denver Public Schools, increased with two exceptions. Denver’s scores in sixth and eighth grade literacy decreased, mirroring the state pattern. Overall, 42.5% of Denver students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded expectations in literacy, and 35% did so in math.That’s slightly below the statewide scores, with 44.7% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in literacy and 37.3% doing so in math.Some students also took science and social studies testsColorado students in grades 4 and 7 were also tested in social studies this past spring, and students in grades 5, 8, and 11 were tested in science.Science scores were down across the three grade levels, with the biggest dip in fifth grade. About 36% of fifth graders met or exceeded state expectations in science, down from 39% in 2025.In social studies, 25.6% of fourth graders and 36.6% of seventh graders met or exceeded expectations. State officials said it’s not possible to compare the scores with previous years because the 2026 tests were aligned to new state social studies standards.Colorado lawmakers voted in the spring to cut the fourth grade social studies test in future years to save money. Only seventh graders will take it from now on.Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
