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District presents winter assessment results and adopts Panorama survey platform for SEL
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Arnold presented winter assessment results showing growth in math and reading for many cohorts and announced that the district will administer the Panorama social-emotional learning (SEL) survey in the ISBE 5-Essentials window beginning Feb. 18, with parent and staff surveys aligned to the same platform.
Deerfield Public Schools District 109 staff presented winter academic assessment results and announced a change to the district's social-emotional learning (SEL) survey platform at the Board of Education meeting Feb. 13.
Dr. Arnold (presenter) said the Illinois State Board of Education has approved the Panorama survey as a replacement alternative to the 5-Essentials survey and the district plans to administer Panorama during the 5-Essentials window beginning Feb. 18; Panorama also provides aligned parent and staff surveys. "When that opportunity became available, we wanted to jump on it," Dr. Arnold said. The staff goal is to complete student survey administration in the next couple of weeks with a potential Panorama update to the board in March.
Winter assessment highlights presented by Dr. Arnold: - Math: Primary grades (1'4) showed green growth; some intermediate grades showed yellow (indicating more growth is needed from winter to spring) and one cohort that had lagged in prior years (the current middle-school cohort) showed blue growth indicating recovery. District staff noted a district-wide math curriculum review with 24 educators, pilots expected in the near term and an emphasis on conceptual, hands-on instruction. - ELA/Reading: The district is in an implementation year of a new ELA curriculum; Dr. Arnold said the expected implementation dip did not appear in winter scores and that growth across grades was encouraging. Staff continue professional development in structured literacy and planned unit-by-unit collaborative planning at middle schools. - Norming: Dr. Arnold explained norms for national comparisons are updated every five years; the next renorming (post-COVID reference) will be released in July 2025.
Board members asked clarifying questions about benchmarks, percent meeting benchmarks versus expected growth, how schools respond to cohorts in yellow, and the district's approach to targeting students who show low growth. Dr. Arnold described targeted small-group instruction, pull-out supports and planning activities that occur during professional development days. She said the district's winter measures are a temperature check and that teachers and teams will use the data to plan afternoon professional development time.
Ending: The district will administer Panorama surveys starting in the 5-Essentials window on Feb. 18 and expects to report student survey results to the board in March; staff recommended continued curriculum review and targeted interventions based on the winter assessment data.
