SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah schools used to outperform schools in Colorado, but that has been changing dramatically.
“Back in the 90s Utah was ahead of Colorado on the four main national tests. Both states slipped over the next decade and Colorado has rebounded on all four of those tests,” said Shawn Teigen, research director at the Utah Foundation.
Teigen and Research Analyst Melissa Proctor described the Utah Foundation’s latest research report, Lessons from Our Neighbor: Learning from Colorado’s Educational Success.
http://www.utahfoundation.org/reports/lessons-from-our-neighbor/
Among their findings: from 1992 to 2013, Utah fourth graders slipped from 15th to 21st in the nation in reading. In that same period, Colorado fourth graders moved from 22nd to 11th in the country in reading.
One reason for the improvement, according to the Utah Foundation report, is funding for preschool and kindergarten.
Colorado offers publicly funded preschool statewide and 74 percent of Colorado school children attend a full-day kindergarten.
Utah does not offer publicly funded preschool and 13 percent of Utah school children attend full-day kindergarten.
