Star Valley School District officials told the Board of Trustees on Sept. 10 that students posted gains on district assessments this year and that the district ranks among the state leaders in English language arts. Presenters said district assessments and state accountability tests measure different depths of skill, and the district’s results show improvement across multiple measures.
The district’s internal assessments show strong early reading performance: presenters said the district’s kindergarten-through-third-grade screeners indicated roughly 94% of students at grade level or higher in decoding and fluency. But on the state standardized accountability test known as YTOP, districtwide English language arts proficiency was 72.4% last year, officials said.
“Screeners are low-stakes and focus on decoding and fluency across multiple administrations; YTOP is a single, high-stakes test that requires deeper comprehension and multi-step analysis,” the presenter told the board, explaining why the percentages differ.
Why this matters: district assessments are used to group students and target instruction during the school year, while YTOP serves as the state’s accountability instrument. Board members heard both the district system of screeners/formatives/summatives and the state results so they can compare local progress-monitoring with the state snapshot.
District presenters outlined the assessment system as a multi-tiered cycle: screeners for baselines, formative checks for in-class coaching, common summative assessments as unit checks, and YTOP as the once-a-year state accountability measure. They reported district results by subject: about 61% proficiency in science (tested in grades 4, 8 and 10), 66.1% in math, and 72.4% in ELA on district/summative measures reported to the board. The presenters emphasized year-over-year growth in those subjects and said the district has led the state in ELA proficiency in recent years.
Board members were shown examples of how the district uses diagnostics — including MAP and AIMSweb screeners — to identify learning gaps and drive instructional plans. Presenters said the district is returning to MAP assessments to better pinpoint standards-level skill deficits.
Board questions centered on differences between local and state measures and how the district supports students who are “close” to proficient. Administrators said the district’s district-assessment items are aligned to priority standards and require certain depths of knowledge, and the district will continue refining instruction based on the diagnostic reports.
The presentation included a district accountability overview showing that, by the state’s multi-indicator accountability labels (achievement, growth, equity and English-learner performance), Star Valley schools met or exceeded state expectations and were not identified for additional state support.
Ending note: district staff directed trustees to online reports for full breakdowns and encouraged board members and the public to review campus-level accountability reports to see subgroup and grade-level detail.