New Berlin West reports gains in reading and math benchmarks and expanded co-curriculars

Mark Otto, the new principal at New Berlin West, updated the New Berlin School Board on literacy and math goals, targeted ACT strategies and a range of extracurricular achievements at the high school.

Otto said the percentage of ninth-grade students meeting the reading benchmark on a district reading test rose to 84.8% in the winter, up from 84.1% in the fall, and that the school’s eighth-grade cohort has a goal of reaching 73% meeting the benchmark by spring. “Our school goal is still at that 73 percent of students, in that eighth grade cohort meeting the benchmarks,” Otto said.

On college-readiness testing, English instructors targeted juniors who were projected to score in the 16–19 range on the ACT reading section. Teacher-led “flex” sessions taught two main strategies: a “signpost” annotation method to speed passage recall and an approach for handling paired passages (passage A then passage B) to improve accuracy under time pressure. English teacher Frank Buffie and an English colleague used pretest data to select students for these sessions; a student testimonial credited the lessons with concrete benefits. A student identified only as Kat toldthe board, “I did find the lessons beneficial. I thought the best parts about them were just the practice was, like, repetitive. We did them every week… I used both strategies learned. I thought they were both really helpful, especially on the day of the ACT when you were really on a time crunch.”

On math, Otto credited the addition of a math coach, Fran Lesniak, and reported progress on a FastBridge automaticity measure. Otto said automaticity scores rose from 79.4% (seventh-grade cohort as seventh graders) to 85.5% in fall testing and that winter scores were higher: “So, 89.1% of our seventh graders and 90.1% of our eighth graders, are meeting that benchmark on the automaticity.” He noted a subgroup concern: among students with individualized education programs, only 37.5% of seventh graders and 50% of eighth graders met the automaticity benchmark.

Otto described next steps: review specially designed instruction for special-education students to determine whether supports should be delivered in case-manager settings or in reading support classes; analyze 2024–25 testing data to identify strengths and weaknesses; expand the math coach’s diagnostic assessments and professional learning; and use an upcoming SAIL summer program as an additional support.

The principal also highlighted rising co-curricular engagement: participation is back up to roughly 80% and students involved in activities have a higher average GPA. Otto said the school has added student resource support called the “Coop” (a donated resource hub for supplies and basic needs), and he listed team and program accomplishments including academic decathlon state championships, DECA international qualifiers, robotics awards, and the first school-team qualifications in women’s cross country and women’s wrestling sectional and regional championships.

The board did not vote on any policy changes related to the presentation; the update was presented for information and next-step planning.