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Steamboat Springs — Third-grade teachers at Soda Creek Elementary School were called into a noon meeting Friday for the first feedback of the year from the state assessment program, a cornerstone of accountability for schools.

The results of the third-grade reading test in the Colorado Student Assessment Program are the first to be released from the Colorado Department of Education. With several weeks left in the school year, teacher Holly Barclay said the data could be helpful in shaping the final weeks of classes.

"We still have a couple months of school, and now we'll know what specific skills to work on," she said.

Eighty-five percent of Soda Creek third-grade students scored in the proficient and advanced reading categories, a score consistent with the 85 percent last year and 84 percent in 2007.

Strawberry Park Elementary School had 93 percent of third-graders in the top two tiers, with 89 percent in those categories last year and 95 percent in 2007.

Hayden Valley Elementary School recorded 63 percent of third-graders in the top two reading categories, a decrease from last year's 96 percent. In 2007, the school had 77 percent of third-graders in the proficient or advanced categories.

In Yampa, South Routt Elementary School recorded 68 percent of third-graders as proficient or advanced readers, compared to 48 percent last year and 61 percent in 2007.

Scores for smaller schools tend to jump or fall more dramatically because of the small number of students tested - 32 this year in Hayden and 34 in South Routt.

Soda Creek teacher Chris Kramer said that while there's always room for improvement, he's happy that the school maintained high scores.

"The numbers show some kids performed well, they really rose to the challenge. It was hard for third-graders," he said.

The CSAP numbers also will be useful for tracking how specific programs in the school shaped student achievement, he said.

"The jury's still out if (the test) aligned well with our reading series," he said. "I think it did, to a certain degree. The test results will speak for themselves."

The state is emphasizing the growth model, a way to track individual student progress from year to year, a tactic Barclay said will help gauge what works and what doesn't.

"I think it will hold us accountable that all kids are growing, no matter where they come in at," she said.

Parents should begin receiving their child's individual results in the mail in the coming weeks and months.