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North Spencer County director of learning reviews assessment trends, flags federal grant timing issue
Summary
At the board's first October 2025 meeting, Director of Learning Jan Jafin reviewed iLearn, iReady and other local assessment results, explained testing cadence changes and said federal grant approvals through the state's new portal are delaying funding arrivals until mid‑October.
Jan Jafin, director of learning for North Spencer County School Corporation, presented a summary of the district's assessment results and related operational impacts at the board's first regular October 2025 meeting. Jafin reviewed trends across iLearn, iReady and other local screening tools and described changes to the district's testing schedule this school year.
Jafin said the district remains strong in some areas: "we are in basically if you look at language arts and math we are in the top 10% of language arts and the top 5%" for the measures she presented. She said assessment changes at the state level — including new cut scores introduced when iLearn replaced previous tests — mean results should be viewed relative to the new standards rather than compared directly to older scores.
The presentation outlined operational changes the district has made to reduce lost instruction time. Jafin said North Spencer will limit iReady administration to a beginning-of-year screen in grades 3–6 this year because giving iReady three times annually combined with other checkpoints produced excessive lost class time in prior years. She described other screening tools the district uses, including a new math comprehension screen (NWDA) that replaced SRI last year.
Jafin also described a temporary funding timing problem: "we don't have any of our federal funds coming in into the 9 weeks of school because [of] the approval process. So they're telling us mid October," she said, referring to the state's new federal‑grant portal (referred to in the meeting as OONA/e‑service). She said some grant application openings were delayed but that applications recently arrived and she expected additional information in mid‑October.
Jafin noted shifting student demographics, including an increase in newly arrived international families and newcomers who remain in newcomer status for two years for assessment reporting. She also described local curricular and professional‑development adjustments intended to support growth — for example, professional development tied to SAT‑aligned instruction for high‑school juniors.
Board members asked clarifying questions about assessment windows and which staff administer specific checks; Jafin said the district is monitoring kindergarten language development closely and tracking cohorts over multiple years.
The presentation was informational; no formal board action was taken on assessment administration or grant management at this meeting.
