Colorado’s latest student testing data is out, and it’s at best a mixed bag.

As The Gazette reports, 37.3% of students in grades 3-8 met or exceeded expectations in math, up from 35.9% last year and on paper reaching a “new record.” 

Meanwhile, English scores — which returned to pre-pandemic levels last year — remained essentially flat, dipping slightly from 44.8% to 44.7%.

Across grades 9 through 11, reading and writing remained flat as math ticked up to 37% — an average that still hides the fact that 11th graders fell to 31.6%.

The elephant in the room, though: The majority of Colorado students still aren’t proficient in math or English.

Moreover, low-income students are roughly 32 points behind in both math and English. Socioeconomic figures influence that, but poverty doesn’t explain why the math gap widened in every grade (3 through 8) during a “record” year.

Against numbers like these, district rankings feel more like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Denver Public Schools, Colorado’s largest district, is a prime example of rosiness outrunning reality. Even as Superintendent Alex Marrero said he’s “particularly proud of the growth we are seeing among our Black and Hispanic students,” the data doesn’t back him up. 

DPS regained pre-pandemic English performance at 42.5%, just shy of 2019. In math, 35% are proficient, up from 32.7%.

Modest improvement — and cold comfort.

While Black and Hispanic students each posted 2-percentage-point gains in math proficiency, fewer than one in five meets or exceeds expectations — 19.9% and 18.6%, respectively. Their white classmates: 69.2%.

In English, Black students dropped slightly and Hispanic students held flat — 26.6% and 25.1%. Only about a quarter are proficient.

Is this really worth a celebration?

No student should be stuck in a school that is failing to meet their needs.

Thankfully, Colorado has robust charter school programs, alongside nonprofits like Colorado Springs-based Parents Challenge and Centennial-based ACE Scholarships supporting parents in exercising that choice.

Gov. Jared Polis’ decision to opt Colorado into the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC) — the first Democratic governor to do so — will expand educational opportunity for Colorado’s families.

Starting in 2027, the EFTC will let taxpayers donate up to $1,700 annually to a scholarship-granting organization and subtract that amount dollar-for-dollar from their federal tax bills.

Those organizations will almost certainly include Parents Challenge, which helps offset the costs for a “full menu of choice” — traditional, charter or private schools; tutoring, after-school programs, transportation or homeschooling.

On The OpEdge, the Gazette’s opinion podcast, Parents Challenge co-founder Steve Schuck called the EFTC an “exact replication of the Parents Challenge model” because it supports a wide range of educational choices.

“It’s a game changer,” Schuck said, crediting Polis. “We hear stories every day, all day long, about how picking a better school saved their children’s lives.”

“In many cases, these are kids who are failing in their old settings, who then find the right settings for themselves and prosper,” Schuck said. “It is truly magic.”

Colorado’s schools won’t be fixed by press releases celebrating that a third of students can do math. They’ll start being fixed when parents stop waiting for permission.

The EFTC alone won’t solve this, but it will open the door.