Lakeland presents midyear benchmark findings; administrators outline supports before April TCAP

Matt Adler, Lakeland School System director of data, assessment and accountability, told the Lakeland School Board on Feb. 5 that the district’s December Benchmark 2 data show overall progress in many grades and subjects but also identified clear areas that need targeted support.

The presentation summarized the benchmark window (closed Dec. 11), the grades tested (2–11) and tested subjects (ELA, math, science and social studies; EOCs include Algebra I, English I/II and biology). "Benchmark data is a snapshot in time of how our students are progressing towards goals," Adler said, adding that the system gives teachers projected achievement levels, probability-of-success estimates and item analyses to guide instruction.

Adler said the new standards-proficiency ranking report lets teachers rank standards from most to least successful and examine item-level difficulty across benchmarks. "This gives good insight because if a standard was tested multiple times on one benchmark, you can see, OK, if the standard success went down, why did it go down?" he said.

Nut Graf: The district reported gains in several elementary grades and content areas but flagged grade-3 ELA, grade-6 ELA and some middle/high school math pacing issues as priorities.…