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Starpoint staff report reading gains after UFLY pilot; district expands science-of-reading work
Summary
At a board meeting, K–2 staff presented results from a UFLY pilot and described professional development aligned with New York State literacy guidance; presenters said some classrooms saw the share of students below the 30th percentile fall substantially.
At a recent Starpoint Central School District board meeting, staff members described full implementation of the UFLY literacy program in K–2 this school year after a year-long pilot that staff said produced measurable reading gains.
Staff members said the change follows New York State guidance and a multi-year professional development effort aimed at the “science of reading,” the body of research about how children learn to read and which instructional approaches are most effective.
The district’s pilot, presenters said, covered six classrooms (two in each grade) and compared students’ scores on aimsweb subtests. “For example, kindergarten A class came in with 55% of students below the 30th percentile; by the end of the year, only 25% were below the 30th percentile,” said Mrs. Ramsey, a staff member presenting the data. Presenters also reported that, on some subtests, only 1% of students remained below benchmark after instruction changes.
Why this matters: early reading proficiency strongly affects later academic outcomes; school staff told the board that the district is aligning classroom practice, screening, and interventions with state literacy briefs and with materials and training staff requested.
Teachers and administrators described a sequence of steps the district took before full implementation: data reviews in 2022–23, limited pilots and professional development in 2023–24, and full roll-out of UFLY in 2024–25. The presenters said teacher-led book studies, conference attendance, virtual presenter sessions, and in-district training (including sound-wall training and PBIS-supported community circles) were all part of the work.
“We’ve seen teachers become confident in the program and students engaged in the work,” Mrs. Toth, a staff member who presented with Ramsey, said. Presenters emphasized classroom visits among colleagues so teachers can observe variations in practice and borrow effective techniques.
Presenters cited specific assessment measures: letter–word sound fluency, phoneme segmentation, nonsense-word fluency, and oral reading fluency. They said aimsweb was used as the nationally normed assessment to track percentiles.
District staff also played a short classroom video during the meeting to illustrate student engagement in early-grade lessons. A student excerpt shown in the video used classroom learning language — for example, naming vowel sounds — which presenters said illustrated the instructional emphasis on sound–symbol knowledge.
Presenters said the district will continue to invest in professional development and peer observation and that the improvement will take multiple years to fully materialize. They also said some work remains: aligning sound walls across classrooms, continuing DEI and PBIS integration, and monitoring cohorts as they progress through grade levels.
Board members who spoke after the presentation praised teachers and the reported gains and said the district should continue monitoring results and the fidelity of classroom implementation.
The district did not present disaggregated, student-level data at the meeting; presenters described classroom-level pilot numbers and district-level trends but did not provide specific counts of students by school beyond the pilot-class examples.
Looking ahead, staff said they will keep supporting teachers with targeted PD, continue the UFLY program in K–2, and monitor midyear and end-of-year assessment results to adjust instruction.
