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Windsor Unified reports strong RINSTAR gains; board praises teachers and students
Summary
District staff presented year-end RINSTAR and CAST predictor results showing double-digit gains in some sites; trustees credited teachers, students and families while administrators highlighted next steps for sustaining growth.
Windsor Unified School District trustees heard a year-end site scorecard update May 15 showing measurable student-growth gains across multiple schools and grade levels.
The assistant superintendent and site principals reported districtwide increases on RINSTAR universal screeners — an 11 percentage-point gain in English language arts and about an 8-point gain in math at Windsor Middle School, and similar year-to-year increases at Brooks Elementary and Windsor High’s 11th-grade CAST predictor — results district officials said predict stronger state test outcomes next year.
“Those are pretty darn good results,” one administrator said while presenting the data, adding that the district had set modest growth targets (2–3 percent) and had surpassed them in many areas. The update showed Brooks Elementary projected growth in the state predictor from roughly 33 percent to about 40 percent in English, and Windsor Middle saw predicted increases large enough that administrators said the school could rank among the county’s top middle schools next year.
Nut graf: The scorecard presentation framed the gains as the product of multi-year instructional strategies, targeted interventions and family engagement; district leaders said the results will guide staffing, professional development and summer planning while cautioning that universal screener predictions must be confirmed by next year’s state results.
District leaders said several site-level factors drove the increases: expanded early literacy work in kindergarten and first grade, focused second-grade reading instruction that elevated reading outcomes, targeted math interventions at grades with state predictors, and family and booster support that enabled site events and staff recognition. Windsor Middle principal Danielle Buckman highlighted reclassification gains in English Learner services (33 students reclassified in the ELD program) and said 82 percent of families said they would recommend the school in the district’s family survey.
Board members, including Trustee Rich Carnation and others, praised teachers and students. “We ask to be held accountable. We asked to be able to do this publicly, and I just want to celebrate our principals who did all the work along with their teachers,” the presenting administrator said.
Officials said the results are preliminary predictions based on RINSTAR and other district measures and noted technical caveats: predictors show likely outcomes but are not the state test itself. Administrators recommended continuing professional development, keeping current interventions in place and publicly reporting final state results when they become available.
Ending: Trustees thanked staff, teachers and families; administration said it will return in fall with official state data and a plan for next steps based on the confirmed results.
