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Superintendent reviews winter assessment data, highlights reading screenings and attendance trends
Summary
Superintendent Laurie reported winter assessment snapshots, described implementation of Act 20 screening tools for early grades, FastBridge and other measures, and flagged attendance and D/F lists at Shorewood High School as areas for targeted supports.
Superintendent Laurie on Feb. 11 presented winter assessment and program updates to the Shorewood School Board, outlining how the district is using screening tools, FastBridge data and local measures to guide instruction and resource decisions.
The presentation matters because the district is in budget season and is aligning resource allocation and professional learning to observed student needs. Laurie emphasized that assessment snapshots inform teacher teams’ weekly work, coaching and targeted interventions rather than being used as a single, definitive diagnosis.
Laurie told the board that the district is implementing literacy screening required by state legislation referenced in the meeting (Act 20) and using AIMSweb screening tools in grades K–3; the superintendent said screening prompts personal reading plans and parental notifications for students who qualify. The meeting record notes administrators reviewing a district screener round and that screening metrics are only one data point among others used by reading specialists and classroom teachers.
District data lead (Mike) and other administrators described FastBridge reading and math snapshots. Laurie said the district looks for patterns across grade levels and that fall-to-winter comparisons are short windows; spring‑to‑spring growth is a more meaningful measure. On the FastBridge snapshots, the district’s internal goal is to have more than 80% of students in each achievement category, and the board discussed growth percentiles and what constitutes typical growth.
Administrators also presented high‑school readiness data: pre‑ACT/ACT data, attendance charts and a D/F list used by counselors to flag credit recovery needs. Laurie and staff reported that roughly 94.5% of district students attend regularly; the board raised concern that nearly one‑third of 10th and 12th graders appeared on the D/F list, prompting discussion about whether grades reflect missing work, course mastery or outside factors.
The district said it will continue to disaggregate achievement and growth data by race, multilingual status and IEP status to monitor equity priorities; the board identified black students and students with disabilities as current focus groups for continuous‑improvement work. Administrators also flagged that small subgroup sizes can make some disaggregated bars appear missing or misleading and cautioned against overinterpreting single snapshots.
Other items from the superintendent’s report included recognition of the shorewood mock trial team advancing to state in March, the SHS boys swim team finishing second in the Woodland Conference, National School Counseling Week acknowledgements, upcoming community events (winter musical and Black History Month programming) and outreach regarding a state-level bill on personal device policies.
Board members asked about comparisons to other districts for Act 20 screening results; staff said there is not yet a statewide snapshot comparable to the DPI forward exam, but administrators are informally sharing results with peer districts as the tools are new to everyone.
District next steps described in the meeting: continue weekly teacher team (c3) meetings, expand teacher access to the NextPath data platform (February 17 PD), pilot IXL math at SIS, and have principals and specialists refine groupings and interventions based on multiple data points rather than single tests.
