Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the K 2 Education Progress topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Central Primary reports gains in early literacy, attendance and social-emotional measures
Summary
Central Primary School leaders told the Bedford Board of Education on March 6 that fall-to-winter diagnostic data show improvements in reading and math tiers, chronic absenteeism and social-emotional indicators, and outlined interventions and family engagement plans.
Central Primary School leaders reported measurable progress in student reading, math and behavior metrics during a presentation at the Bedford Board of Education work session on March 6.
The presentation, delivered by Jennifer Spate, principal of Central Primary School, and Angelique Lipford, dean of academic achievement, summarized fall-to-winter diagnostic shifts and the school’s strategies for instruction, attendance and social-emotional learning. Spate said kindergarten through second-grade students saw movement out of the lowest performance band: “For second grade, we had 48% in the red in the fall, 36% in the winter,” she said. Lipford noted gains on the district’s DESSA social-emotional screener, reporting that 23 students had moved to “typical” tier 1 status after interventions.
Why it matters: The district’s early-grade performance drives later outcomes on statewide assessments and supports the district’s stated goal to reduce deficit spending by improving core academic performance and student attendance.
Administrators described the school’s instructional approach: daily, structured reading and math blocks using the Envision curriculum with i-Ready personalization; formative checks (thumbs-up/downs, quick movement checks) to inform small-group pullouts; scaffolding and sentence stems to boost classroom discussion; and targeted interventions pulled from DIBELS for early literacy. Spate said the school uses report-card and screening data to place students on a Reading Monitoring Plan (RMP) and to set teacher-team goals. She told the board: “Last year, we had 17 percent of our students get off of the RMP. We are, obviously, shooting for a higher number this year.”
Attendance and climate: Central earned five stars for chronic absenteeism and five stars for English-language learners on state-reportable indicators, Spate said, and the school reported an overall three-star rating. The building has an attendance team led by the school counselor; the team reported a 75% rate of improvement for students targeted through attendance interventions. Administrators also described PBIS incentives and a “check-in/check-out” tier 2 intervention Lipford credited with measurable improvement among participating students.
Social-emotional learning: Spate said the school reduced identified moderate-to-high needs on the DESSA by 54% for the cohort they tracked, and Lipford highlighted restorative practices, office resets and counseling-driven supports. “We improved our DESSA percentage by 54%,” Spate said.
Family engagement: Central plans parent nights (math night, data night), a Donuts with Grown-ups event and a mentoring “lunch and learn” run in partnership with the high school. Administrators also described plans for an arts show and other outreach tied to STEAM programming.
Board response and next steps: Board members praised the emphasis on early intervention and individualization. One board member asked whether the curriculum was new; Spate answered, “New-ish — it was adopted last year.” Superintendent Dr. Johnson and school leaders said they will continue to monitor progress, refine interventions and report back to the board.
The presentation included short remarks from several first- and second-grade students who attended the meeting and described what they like about school.
