Colorado’s PSAT and SAT 2026 scores: How did your school or district perform?

Colorado's eleventh graders have seen a slight decline in their SAT math and reading and writing scores for the 2026 school year, while ninth and tenth graders demonstrated improvements in both subjects on the PSAT. Overall, high school students are performing better in math and reading compared to two years ago, according to the Colorado Department of Education's chief assessment officer, Christina Wirth-Hawkins. However, historically underperforming groups still lag behind.

The PSAT results showed that 31.6% of eleventh graders scored proficient in SAT math, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points compared to the previous year, while the 59.6% proficient in reading and writing is an improvement of 0.5 percentage points. On the SAT, the drop in scores was more significant with a 2 percentage point decrease in reading and writing proficiency among eleventh graders, dropping to 59.6% from 57.6% in 2024.

Wirth-Hawkins highlighted the encouraging trend of higher overall scores in PSAT tests for tenth and ninth graders, but also stressed the persistence of achievement gaps among different student racial and ethnic groups, as well as those from lower-income backgrounds. Despite the improvement in the overall percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations, the gaps between student groups remain substantial. White and Asian students continue to outperform their Black, Hispanic, and Native American peers in all tests.