Amy Notch, ROCORI Public School District director of teaching and learning, presented the district's annual Comprehensive Achievement and Civic Readiness (CACR) report to the board, summarizing attendance, assessment results, curriculum changes and the district's local literacy plan under the state Read Act.

Notch told the board the district now uses a data warehouse that allows more regular monitoring of full-day attendance at five buildings; full-day attendance rates for the 2024–25 year ranged roughly between 93 percent and 95.5 percent depending on the building. Notch said those figures exclude approved activities (for example, students leaving for athletic events) and that differences in how online attendance is recorded will require further review.

On the CACR goals, Notch reviewed efforts to close racial and economic achievement gaps measured with the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA). She reported that for reading in the most recent reporting year students who do not receive free or reduced-price lunch had a proficiency rate of 57.6 percent versus 32.7 percent for students who do receive free or reduced-price lunch, a gap the presenter said narrowed slightly to 23.6 percent in 2025 because proficiency fell for both groups.

On college and career readiness measures, the district used the aReading and aMath nationally normed screeners. Notch said the district reached its aReading target for ninth and 10th grades (74 percent and 73 percent low-risk benchmark, respectively) and remained just under the aMath target; she cautioned that aReading/aMath are shorter, lower‑rigor snapshots than MCAs.

Notch highlighted continued strength in graduation rates: the district's four‑year graduation rate for its high school remains above 90 percent, and she reported a 93 percent four‑year graduation rate for Hispanic/Latino students in the most recent completed year. She noted differences in state and local calculations and said state reporting can lag.

Notch outlined the district's response to the Read Act and new state training requirements. She said the district will deliver LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) training as its phase‑1 approach and expects 80-plus educators trained in LETRS by summer 2026; required groups for phase 1 include K–6 classroom teachers, K–12 EL and special education teachers, and administrators. The district also is delivering an eight‑hour structured‑literacy training for all paraprofessionals this year, and Notch said teachers report the new curriculums for K–5 (UFLI for K–2; a knowledge‑building program for grades 3–5) are being well received.

Notch reported early reading screening results moving from 36 percent of students at the low‑risk benchmark (spring 2024) to 44 percent (spring 2025) in the early-reading measures used districtwide; she described these as pilots and said scaled rollout of UFLI should change the spring results further. She also said the district will pilot Capti Read Basics (a diagnostic/characteristics screening for dyslexia) for older elementary students because that assessment requires basic reading ability.

On interventions, Notch described "win time" small‑group scheduling at the elementary level (targeted swaps between teachers to group students needing the same remediation) and said the district is exploring secondary scheduling and advisory options to provide intervention time for middle and high school students.

Notch closed with a review of MCA and other assessment trends: district and state reading performance remain relatively flat, the district tested about 95 percent of eligible students on the reading MCA this year, and ROCORI shows notable strengths in some math grade levels (eighth grade MCA proficiency of 54.6 percent vs. statewide 41.7 percent). Notch warned that science assessments are on a new baseline aligned to 2019 standards and said the district proficiency on that new science test was 23.2 percent versus 25.7 percent statewide, which she described as a baseline with room for growth.

Board members asked clarifying questions about how preschool readiness is being measured, how LETRS training compares to higher‑education teacher preparation, and next steps for family communication about screening results. Notch said the district has added a registration question about prior preschool attendance to enable future comparisons and plans parent communication and a district resource hub by Nov. 1 (goal stated by presenter).