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Board reviews first-year literacy rollout, new statewide screener and personal reading plans under Act 20
Summary
District staff updated the board on first-year implementation of Savvas MyView/My Perspectives curriculum, LETRS training, the AIMSweb Plus statewide literacy screener and STAR benchmark trends showing growth in the “low risk” category; staff cautioned AIMSweb is new this year and spring data were incomplete.
District instructional leaders told the Board of Education on April 20 that the first year of a districtwide literacy curriculum rollout and the new state requirements (Act 20) produced encouraging early results but will require continued support in year two.
Marybeth Pelosi, director of elementary education, Jan Shenoweth, director of secondary continuity, instruction and assessment, and Ken Metz, a school principal, described a phased implementation of Savvas MyView (K–5) and My Perspectives (6–8), combined LETRS professional development and new statewide screening using AIMSweb Plus for K–3. Staff also continued to use STAR assessment data to track trends.
Staff said they trained principals and instructional coaches before teaching staff, staged professional development across the school year and prioritized in-contract PD days so teachers did not have to add extensive summer work. The district resumed LETRS training this year; staff said the full LETRS program extends across multiple volumes and will complete in the fall for elementary staff.
On assessment, presenters said STAR data comparing winter 2023–24 with winter 2024–25 showed larger shares of students in the low-risk band and a reduction in the high-risk band across grades 1–8; the presenters described especially notable gains for students with disabilities and Black/African American students. Staff cautioned that STAR and AIMSweb norming differs from Wisconsin’s Forward Exam and that Forward’s cut-score changes limit year-to-year comparability for that state test.
AIMSweb Plus was introduced this year in winter; staff said AIMSweb provides more discrete measures (phonics, oral reading fluency) and that the district used it to identify students who require a state-mandated personal reading plan. Staff described the personal reading-plan process: students identified for plans are progress-monitored weekly and the district uses weekly probes; staff said four consecutive progress-monitoring measures are required for a student to be considered for exit from a reading plan. Because the AIMSweb spring window remained open through the week following the meeting, staff noted the AIMSweb spring data presented to the board were incomplete.
Staff also described dual-language implementation differences: the district is using Savvas MiVision (Spanish companion materials) alongside the English MyView materials and is working to align instructional units for two-way immersion classrooms because the Spanish and English texts are not direct translations but separate authentic texts.
Next steps listed by staff included completion of LETRS training, continued coaching and collaborative planning, ongoing monitoring of AIMSweb and STAR results, and deeper professional development on the science of writing embedded in the new curriculum.
Ending: District leaders called the first year of curriculum implementation “a big lift” with early positive shifts in benchmark data but said more time, training and complete spring assessment data will be needed to confirm trends and support students who remain at risk.
