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Colorado eleventh graders lost some ground on SAT math and reading and writing tests this year, but ninth and tenth graders posted gains on both subjects on the PSAT.
The combined results paint a mostly positive picture for student learning in math and reading in high school, with students in 11th grade still performing better overall than they did two years ago. However, state officials said the groups of students who have historically underperformed still lag behind.
“The overall story of this year’s assessment release is one of progress, but also one of continued work ahead,” said Christina Wirth-Hawkins, the Colorado Department of Education’s chief assessment officer.
The department released statewide assessment data on Wednesday afternoon, a trove of information that includes how students performed on the national standardized tests taken this spring. Colorado measures how well students are learning in subjects by looking at the PSAT and SAT rather than using its own state-created assessment.
The drops on SAT math and reading and writing show students backslid slightly.
On the 11th grade SAT math test, 31.6% of students scored proficient, a drop of .9 percentage points compared to last year. Students exceeded 2024 measures by .5 percentage points.
On the SAT reading and writing sections, student achievement dropped 2 percentage points compared to last year, falling to 59.6% of students rated as proficient. That’s ahead of the 57.6% posted in 2024.
Wirth-Hawkins called the spring PSAT results “encouraging” because of the overall increases.
Students scored higher overall on 10th grade PSAT tests compared to the year before. Ninth graders also posted higher overall scores on PSAT math tests but only recorded a .2 percentage point increase on the reading test.
Wirth-Hawkins said the year-over-year growth on the PSAT reveals that there are still achievement gaps, including among different student racial ethnicities and those from lower-income backgrounds.
“Substantial differences in performance remain among student groups,” she said. “So, improvement in the overall percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations does not mean that the gaps have disappeared.”
On all tests, white and Asian students continue to post much higher scores than their Black, Hispanic, and Native American peers.
For example, on the PSAT grade 10 reading and writing test, 78,9% of white and 76.1% of Asian students scored proficient. But only 40% of Hispanic, 44% of Native American, and 45.1% of Black students scored proficient on that test.
Students who qualify for free or reduced lunch also consistently scored about 30 points lower on SAT and PSAT math and reading and writing tests than other students.
Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
