MSAD 60 staff presented the district’s spring 2025 three-year assessment (NWEA/state assessment) results at the Aug. 7 board meeting and highlighted gaps for students identified with educational disabilities and economically disadvantaged students.

Dr. Shannon Swagger, who presented the data, said the state’s spring administration produces the “scale score” used to determine whether students meet state expectations. She emphasized disaggregating results to understand which student groups are not meeting expectations and noted the district had only recently received validated spring scores from the state’s validation process with NWEA.

The presentation included grade-level examples showing subgroup differences. For third grade math (district totals): 243 third graders were tested and 163 met state expectation. Of the 32 third-grade students identified as special education, 10 met expectation; of the 58 identified as economically disadvantaged, 37 met expectation; of the 20 identified in both subgroups, 4 met expectation; and of the 133 students identified as neither special education nor economically disadvantaged (general education), 112 met expectation (84%).

Dr. Swagger told the board, “Making broad statements about student performance without examining subgroup differences can be misleading,” and said the disaggregated view helps to identify which students need targeted resources. She highlighted that many of the students not meeting expectations are in the subgroups cited, and noted middle grades (6–8) showed particular concentrations of students in need.

Board members asked the administration to provide more data. The board requested:
- A CSV of the disaggregated data with student-identifying information removed (the presenter said she would check data-security procedures and coordinate with district data staff).
- Additional breakdowns by special-education category (e.g., specific learning disability vs. other health impairment) and year-to-year comparisons when available.

The presenter and board agreed to schedule a follow-up, deeper review in the fall; staff said state-level comparisons and some public dashboards were not yet available for 2024–25 data.

Why it matters: the disaggregated results highlight performance gaps between general education students and those with compounded risk factors (special education identification and economic disadvantage). Board members said this data will inform upcoming budget and staffing decisions, including targeted supports and programming.

What’s next: staff will prepare the requested disaggregated data (with identifying information removed where required) and bring a deeper analysis to a fall meeting; board members were asked to submit questions in advance so staff can prepare requested filters and counts.