Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the District Data Curriculum topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District winter snapshot shows reading gains; middle‑school math flagged for curriculum review
Summary
District staff presented winter benchmarking using the ECRA model; reading growth rose in multiple grades while seventh‑grade math remained below expected growth. The district will review sixth–eighth grade math curriculum and increase unit‑level PL and coaching.
Liz Earhart, district director of assessment and curriculum, presented a district‑level winter benchmarking overview at the Feb. 10 board meeting, describing how the ECRA model projects student growth and how the district interprets the winter MAP/benchmark results.
Earhart said ECRA "takes all of last year's student performance data, creates an individual student composite and projects a future score for the upcoming spring." Schools use the model to classify students as making greater than expected growth, expected growth, lower than expected growth or unsatisfactory growth and to plan tiered supports.
The district summary showed reading growth increases across multiple grade levels, including higher‑than‑expected growth in first and fifth grades, and improvement in eighth‑grade reading and math from fall to winter. Earhart credited the district's ELA resource adoption and UFLI foundational skills work in early grades for some reading gains.
By contrast, math growth at the middle school level was highlighted as an area of concern. Earhart said math growth in seventh grade remains "lower than expected in the ECRA model," and she described a curriculum review process for sixth through eighth grade math resources. "We're identifying students through our data review who are in need of additional supports," she said, and the district is weighing whether to continue with the Big Ideas resource with added professional development or to pursue new vendors.
District strategies already in place include unit previews (PLM), grade‑level PLCs, instructional coaches assigned to grade bands, and closer monitoring of intervention and enrichment to ensure the MTSS model serves both students needing support and those needing acceleration. Earhart said winter data begins spring eligibility determinations for acceleration and gifted programming.
Board members asked for more longitudinal, cohort and trajectory reporting rather than only snapshots. Dr. Kevin Russell, superintendent, told the board he and staff want to assemble multi‑year trend visualizations so the board can evaluate momentum across cohorts as they move from kindergarten through eighth grade.
The district scheduled a curriculum workshop for Feb. 24 to dig deeper into ELA implementation and to discuss curriculum and budget planning for the next school year.
