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Elementary principals outline continuous-improvement plan focused on literacy, cite gap in growth for lower-performing students
Summary
Principals and curriculum leaders described districtwide implementation of the MyView literacy curriculum and compliance with Act 20 (AIMSwebPlus assessments), and presented data showing most elementary students are proficient but lower-performing students make high growth at much lower rates.
Elementary principals and district curriculum leaders told the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District Board of Education on Dec. 2 that the district’s continuous-improvement work for 2024–25 is concentrated on literacy implementation and school-specific improvement goals.
Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Sylvia Romero Johnson and Director of Elementary Curriculum and Instruction and Assessment Marybeth Pulissey (as presented) said all elementary schools are prioritizing literacy implementation of the MyView curriculum and preparing for Act 20 requirements, which require early literacy screening and reading plans using the AIMSwebPlus assessment for grades 4K–3.
Principals described a coordinated approach: bimonthly leadership collaboration meetings hosted in different buildings, instructional coaching and coaching cycles in classrooms, and professional development time dedicated to co‑planning and unpacking online MyView resources. The district emphasized an implementation-and-data cycle: schools collect both large-scale (state) and formative classroom data and use it to tailor interventions and professional development.
Marybeth Pulissey presented an analysis of elementary assessment data: roughly 80% of elementary students were above the district’s proficiency benchmark (the 40th national percentile on STAR/related measures). Among students who are proficient, about 60% made “high growth” (student growth percentile above the median). Among students below the proficiency benchmark, only about 36% made high growth—meaning lower-performing students as a group were less likely to make rapid gains than their higher-performing peers.
Principals said the district is actively using multiple screening tools (including AIMSwebPlus, universal screeners and classroom-level formative assessments) to identify students needing targeted support and to develop reading plans required by Act 20. Administrators noted an upcoming January professional-development day to focus on writing reading plans and implementing more intensive, targeted reading instruction for students in the bottom quartile identified by state rules.
Other topics covered by the elementary team included social-emotional learning expansion (responsive-classroom training, Second Step curriculum), school-based mental-health staffing (two additional full-time school-based mental-health therapists this year) and adoption of the DPI‑approved Danielson 2022 teacher evaluation framework for the 2024–25 year.
Board members asked how the district will identify effective local practices and improve outcomes for lower-performing students. Marybeth Pulissey said the district’s next steps include deeper, school‑by‑school analysis to identify outlier teachers and practices that produce high growth among low‑performing students and then to scale promising approaches. Members requested follow-up data in future reports and a learning session in January to review progress and interventions.
The principals and curriculum leaders said they will continue classroom visits, collect implementation data, and compare outcomes in subsequent assessments to track whether the new curriculum and targeted reading plans change the observed growth pattern.
