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Board faults LASER report as insufficient; administration agrees to provide monthly/quarterly 'on‑track' summaries
Summary
Board members and staff debated the district’s student‑data reporting. Members said the state LASER feed does not give usable academic trend data; staff agreed to provide quarterly summaries and explore monthly snapshots showing 'at‑risk' counts by grade and subject.
Board members pressed central office staff about the usefulness of the state’s LASER reporting system for tracking student academic progress during the April meeting, and district leaders agreed to return with simpler, regular summary reports that board members can use to monitor trends.
Why it matters: Several trustees said the LASER reports the board has received are not producing timely, actionable academic indicators — particularly for coursework and mastery — and that the board needs a simpler, consistent “stoplight” snapshot showing how many students are on track, at risk or falling behind by grade and subject.
What the board heard: Doctor Dawn Norman, who manages school quality and assessment work, explained LASER pulls coursework from the gradebook and that LASER’s “early warning” indicator covers a different time window (January‑to‑January) than the 30‑day snapshots the board sees. She said the state’s LASER implementation and recent VDOE system outages have caused delays and prevented the district from making the comparative, school‑year‑over‑school‑year snapshots the board requested.
Board members, including Mr. Childress and others, said they needed a concise, recurring report (monthly or quarterly) that lists counts of at‑risk students by grade and by content area so the board can measure progress and decide when to request deeper information. Doctor Norman said the division already tracks student groups with local tools — MasteryConnect, DreamBox and other common assessments — and that staff can produce a one‑page summary by grade and subject each quarter; she also said she will explore monthly reporting options where common assessments permit comparison.
Other details: Trustees asked for clarity about which measures feed the LASER coursework metric (gradebook entries, which may include zeros for missing work, versus mastery assessments). Staff said they would provide the board an academic summary page showing fall, midyear and spring snapshots for core grades and subjects and would make the division’s quarterly summaries available to board members in board documents. Staff also committed to sending the monthly disciplinary procedures and the detailed discipline and suspension report used by administrators.
Ending: Administration agreed to deliver the requested one‑page academic summaries and to work on options for monthly snapshots where the assessment cadence allows. The board asked staff to bring a recommended reporting cadence and sample pages at the next meeting.
