Blackstock Junior High credits daily fluency and math practice for winter-to-spring gains

Miss Homestaff, presenter for Blackstock Junior High, told the Hueneme School District governing board Wednesday that the school saw measurable reading and math improvements after adopting school‑wide Tier 1 strategies.

The presentation summarized fall, winter and spring benchmark results showing increases in students scoring in the Tier 1 (green) band on aimswebPlus reading screeners and reductions in the share of students scoring in the “critical” range on math screeners. The gains followed a January rollout of repeated‑reading routines and a daily RTI math practice using Amplify.

Miss Homestaff said Blackstock’s current enrollment is 1,240, down about 200 students from the previous year, and reported 352 current English learners. She described “Ever ELs” — students who are now or were previously classified as English learners — as an important part of the student profile and gave a count of 1,003 for that group. She also noted 177 students with disabilities and a socioeconomically disadvantaged figure reported as 89.6 (the transcript did not specify whether that figure is a percent or a count).

On reading, Miss Homestaff described a repeated‑reading routine shown in research to boost fluency and comprehension. She summarized the four steps — teacher modeling, echo reading, choral reading and partner reading — and said teachers implemented the practice in every content area for about 10 minutes each day beginning in January. “As we kept doing this, we really saw students’ comprehension of what we were reading increasing,” she said.

Math improvements were attributed to a school‑wide use of a 5–10 minute daily practice in the district RTI period using the Amplify program to build fluency with basic facts. Miss Homestaff said the school targeted the “red” (critical) band and described reductions in the share of critically performing students across grade levels (examples given: from 47% to 32% in one grade and 48% to 28% in another). She said one grade’s critical rate fell from 51% in winter to 39% in spring and described meeting the MTSS goal of a 5 percentage‑point reduction in at least one grade.

The presentation also included Panorama social‑emotional learning data. Miss Homestaff said staff saw an 8‑point drop in the self‑management measure from fall to spring and a smaller decline in overall self‑efficacy, which the school plans to investigate with student panels and interviews. She highlighted one targeted Tier 1 strategy called “growth circles” used with students who had lower report card grades; that measure rose by 3 points for “reaching goals.”

The principal also described family engagement efforts — Saturday parent academies and evening meetings — and reported parent favorable responses to family engagement rose from 74% in winter of the prior year to 88% this year. She identified literacy work (including the district’s LETRS initiative) and continued teacher support as priorities going forward.

No formal board action was taken during the presentation, which concluded with a routine question period and thanks to the presenter.