Mercer County highlights K–8 reading push, district keeps writing focus

Mister McAllister presented the district’s annual improvement-planning cycle and summarized each school’s priorities, telling the Mercer County Board of Education that the plans guide school-level and district-level work through the year.

At the elementary level, McAllister said teams are focusing on clear learning targets and vocabulary work. “There are two major areas of focus for this year were learning targets and objectives in their classroom and then vocabulary work,” he told the board.

The intermediate school has continued high state testing returns and has started using the Benchmark reading program; McAllister said the intermediate will expand Benchmark next year into the elementary school. At the middle school, leaders described a push to reduce novice-level students in reading and writing — McAllister said the middle school was “four-tenths of a point away” from reaching a green state designation and sees proficiency gains and attendance work as priorities.

At the high school, McAllister highlighted consecutive annual gains on the ACT and said staff are focused on reducing novice performance across classrooms to continue that trend. The district intends to sharpen its districtwide reading work initially in K–8 while keeping a continued emphasis on writing in every classroom.

McAllister described the planning process as ongoing: schools build priorities in summer, refine after early-year assessment returns, and submit formal improvement plans to the state later in the year. The board received the instruction report; no formal action was taken.