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Midyear benchmarks: Kennewick reports mixed STAR, WA Kids and dual‑language progress; board asks for cohort tracking
Summary
District assessment staff presented midyear STAR and WA Kids benchmark data showing varied growth and proficiency across grades, highlighted progress in some pilot classrooms and dual‑language trajectories, and fielded board questions about cohort tracking and school-by-school comparisons.
Kennewick School District administrators presented midyear academic data showing mixed results across grade levels and programs and outlined next steps for benchmarking and intervention.
Alyssa St. Hilaire, who led the update, said the district is reviewing Winter STAR reading and math benchmarks as well as WA Kids kindergarten screening data. She told the board that the district’s goal for growth is a Student Growth Percentile (SGP) of 50 — roughly a year’s worth of growth — and that the district is now using STAR-derived projections calibrated to Smarter Balanced outcomes to estimate proficiency.
St. Hilaire said kindergarten screening results are down compared with last year in several domains and that early-grade growth patterns differ because kindergarten students use a different early-literacy measure (EarlyLit) before switching to STAR. She reported that middle schools completed STAR for the first time last year, creating a stronger baseline this year.
The presentation also described dual‑language students’ growth in both English and Spanish. St. Hilaire said the district is participating in national work to generate bilingual trajectories and that the pilot data show promising gains in both languages as students advance through early grades.
Board members asked for additional reporting formats. One director requested cohort tracking — following the same group of students from one year to the next — and school‑by‑school comparisons, noting that demographic differences can affect results. St. Hilaire said the district already examines cohort growth at the school level and can provide more cohort-based reports on request, but that the board’s current key-indicator reports compare grade-level performance year to year unless the board requests a change.
St. Hilaire and other staff said they will return with more complete spring projections and that Smarter Balanced results will not be available until late summer.
Ending
District leaders said they will bring back cohort-level data and more school-level comparisons in future reports and will present spring STAR projections and implementation updates in May.
