Sun Prairie reports winter gains on math benchmarks, outlines new curriculum timeline and equity focus

Sun Prairie Area School District officials presented winter benchmark data and a multi-year plan to strengthen math instruction, reporting measurable growth in several grades while identifying persistent gaps for students with disabilities and some student groups.

In a presentation to the school board, Assistant Superintendent Stephanie Leonard and district math leaders detailed results from the district’s universal screener (AIMSweb), classroom-level assessments, and recent ACT results, and described next steps including new instructional materials and targeted supports. "This improvement of 12.3% from fall to winter is certainly suggesting that we'll be on track to meet or exceed our end of year goal," said Rick Miller, director of elementary teaching, learning and equity, referring to combined kindergarten–first-grade AIMSweb gains.

The presentation matters because these measures feed the district scorecard and the board’s student-result policies, providing the evidence leaders use to change instruction and allocate supports. District leaders said the universal screener results and classroom assessments are the most actionable measures because they are closest to teachers and students.

Key findings and figures presented - Kindergarten–1: AIMSweb fall-to-winter improvement of 12.3%, reported by Rick Miller. - Grades 2–5: Composite AIMSweb growth of 8.8% from fall to winter; third grade led with a 16.8% increase while fourth grade rose 0.6%. - Grades 6–8: A 2.5% increase in students meeting the math benchmark, which the district said keeps it on track to meet its scorecard goal of a 2% increase across grades 6–8. - High school: A 3.5% increase in 11th graders meeting the ACT math benchmark (a score of 22). Multilingual learners showed an increase to 6.4% meeting the ACT benchmark where none had met it in the prior year; students with disabilities remained effectively unchanged, with 1.7% of 11th-grade students with IEPs meeting the ACT benchmark.

Disaggregation and areas for further study District staff disaggregated results by race, students with IEPs and multilingual learners. Lexi Vanden Heuvel, the district’s 4K–12 math coordinator, highlighted gap-closing growth for several groups: Asian students (+10.6%), students identifying with two or more races (+9.2%), Latino students (+13.3%) and multilingual learners (+11.6%) on benchmark measures. She also noted slower gains for Black students (+6%) and students with IEPs (+6.7%) in some grade bands, which the district said require targeted attention.

Screeners and test windows District staff said AIMSweb is administered three times per year in kindergarten through eighth grade and that classroom-level assessments are used throughout K–12. The preACT was administered in early April for 9th and 10th graders; district staff said spring preACT data were not yet available at the time of the presentation but expected a quick turnaround.

Planned instructional and programmatic actions District leaders described several concrete next steps: continue work on essential grade-level standards, strengthen high-leverage instructional practices, deepen support for multilingual and neurodivergent learners, and design common formative and summative assessments to drive professional learning team planning. Specific timelines announced: new math instructional materials for grades 6–12 are slated for fall 2025 implementation, and materials for 4K–5 are planned for spring 2026. Stephanie Leonard said the district will "center historically marginalized students, students of color, multilingual students, and students with disabilities" in its hundred-day planning and longer implementation work.

Funding and acknowledgement Presenters thanked the community for recent fiscal support through a referendum, saying that the passage of that measure helps maintain staffing and programming necessary for the planned instructional work.

What remains unresolved Staff flagged several items for further study and local action rather than board decisions at this meeting: the district intends to examine the small sample caveat shown on some subgroup slides, further investigate the modest fourth-grade increase and the continued low ACT benchmark attainment for students with disabilities, and await full preACT results for 9th and 10th graders.

The presentation closed with an invitation to discuss these results further at an upcoming school board meeting.