Colorado students lost some ground in state-required tests last year and other scores remained flat, but state officials on Wednesday pointed to their slow, steady improvement when measured over the longer term.

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Educators blamed the large number of new tests and said they expected test scores to level out for a few years. They also pointed to individual success stories.

"While the results statewide remain flat, there are many schools and districts that defy the averages," said state Board of Education Chairman Randy DeHoff.

The Colorado Student Assessment Program tests students from fourth grade through 10th grade in reading, writing, math and science. It was given during the spring.

Parents will receive test results in the mail beginning next week.

In the latest reading tests:

Fourth-graders rated proficient and advanced dropped from 63 percent to 61 percent, respectively
Seventh-graders dropped from 63 percent to 59 percent, respectively

In writing:

Fourth-graders rated proficient and advanced dropped from 51 percent to 50 percent, respectively,
Seventh-graders rates dropped from 52 percent to 50 percent, respectively

But Education Commissioner Bill Moloney, who released the CSAP scores, said the results show slow and steady progress from 1997 when fourth-graders were first tested on reading and writing.

Parents and teachers have mountains of data to go over now that all 26 tests have been implemented, he said.

Officials cautioned the scores cannot be used to help rate schools from unsatisfactory to excellent.

Those scores will be released in December. It is calculated after a long and sometime debatable process. First, the state Department of Education will apply a formula to Wednesday's scores to consider students who recently transferred, who took alternative assessment tests, and other factors that educators argued should not be counted.

Last year, legislators determined that 30 schools would receive unsatisfactory ratings.

Under the formula, those schools this year could be out from under the threat of state sanctions that allow school boards to replace failing schools with charter schools if they do not improve within four years.

Moloney said schools only have to show slight improvement to escape sanctions.

"These rules are not Draconian," he said.

Other Wednesday's results:

Of seven grades given reading tests the past two years, the sixth-, eighth-, ninth- and 10th-grade scores improved and fourth-, fifth- and seventh-grade scores declined. Over the past six years, fourth-grader testing as proficient or advanced increased 6 percentage points.
Of three groups given math tests last year and this year, fifth- and 10th-graders improved, while eighth-grader's scores remained steady at 39 percent.
Statewide ACT results for tests given to encourage high school students to go on to college showed a slight increase from an average 18.6 composite score to 18.8.