The Douglas County Board of Education will rethink its
graduation requirements before the next school year because of
recent Colorado Student Assessment Program scores, said Bruce
Caughey, spokesman for the district.

The CSAP component of graduation requirements, which requires
seniors to score proficient or above on the CSAP or an equivalent
test to graduate, has come under scrutiny by the board in light of
the 10th-grade CSAP math scores.

A Douglas County student could score well on the American
Collegiate Test and be accepted to a college such as the University
of Colorado at Boulder but not be allowed to graduate from high
school because his CSAP scores were not proficient, said Elliott
Asp, assistant superintendent for research and
assessment.

In 2000, the board of education adopted the stronger
requirements, which are in effect for this year’s
ninth-graders.

“The standard must be set high,” said Rick O’Connell, the
district superintendent, “but the CSAP system has not worked out
yet.”

The state is adjusting the 10th-grade math test to a level of
difficulty that better reflects the level of learning in the 10th
grade, Asp said.

“The CSAP math score bar is set too high,” Asp said. “With the
math score bar set so high, it will impact the whole graduation
process.”

The district completed a comparison of test scores on the
pre-ACT, called the PLAN, with 10th-grade CSAP scores for the same
students, Asp said.

“Douglas County students who scored partially proficient on CSAP
outperformed more than 75 percent of their national peers on PLAN,”
Asp said.

Although Asp said the requirements for proficiency in 10th-grade
CSAP math scores are too high, the district also is looking into
issues with curricula to be certain it is teaching students what
they need to know to be proficient.

“CSAP proficiency or equivalent should remain part of the
requirement for graduation,” said Patsy Gleason, assistant
superintendent for learning services.

In the coming months the board of education will look into the
graduation requirements for its 2005 graduates, Caughey
said.

“The district just went to requiring every student have algebra
I,” Asp said. “Students who completed algebra I, II and geometry
before the 10th grade did better on the CSAP.”