Statewide Audit Results Concerning the School Accountability Systems

Colorado passed a bill last year to have the accountability systems audited. This systems are now CMAS and the local School Accountability Committees (SACs) and District Accountability Committees (DACs). This is the results of the study.

This article by CPR News provides insight on how those in charge of these school districts disagree with the audit and the effectiveness of the accountability systems. From this article:

What do these systems do?

"The accountability system measures performance in schools and school districts using several measures: standardized test scores, graduation and dropout rates, and for high schools, college enrollment rates. The accreditation system rates those schools and districts and if they land in one of the two lowest-performing levels, they get placed on the state’s watch list."

What were the results?

"The audit found what decades of national education research has shown: Schools with higher proportions of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, Hispanic or Black students, and students with disabilities generally had lower overall academic achievement. That means that schools or districts with high numbers of students of color are more likely to receive a low performance rating."

Conclusion from the CPR News article:

"Though the audit concluded the system is improving outcomes, Grenham said the number of students reading and doing math on grade level has flatlined since 2010."

"So if your accountability system is improving the overall outcomes then you would expect the overall scores to be higher over time and they're not,” he said. “What the system is really good at is identifying who's on the lower end and not really at identifying why those people or those schools are on the lower end … So there's a bit of a denial around why gaps are continuing the way they are.”