District spaces major assessments to reduce student "testing fatigue"; I Ready and SAS schedule adjusted

School administrators told the board they have revised the district assessment calendar to reduce overlap with state testing and to limit student testing fatigue. Changes include moving some math and literacy benchmark assessments earlier in the spring for grades 3'5 and staggering midyear assessments so students are not assessed in multiple subjects in the same weeks. Administrators said last year students experienced heavy testing near the end of the year, with local screeners and SAS testing scheduled in close succession. "The kids were so tested out by the time they did I Ready, they just didn't care," an administrator said. To increase the usefulness of comparative data, the district will move I Ready benchmark windows for some grades ahead of April vacation and allow two weeks of instruction before SAS testing. The district continues to use I Ready three times per year as an independent benchmark and will complement it with curriculum-embedded measures. Staff also described the MTSS data days process, where specialists, the MTSS coordinator and grade-level teams analyze screening data together to shape interventions and extensions. Administrators emphasized pre-messaging to students to reduce anxiety, limits on individual test session length (cited as "40 minutes at the most"), and more opportunities for social or decompression activities during assessment periods. The district said it would present assessment results to the board in the fall once local data collection cycles are complete.