District presents midyear assessment data showing gains in early grades, mixed results later

Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 officials on Feb. 11 presented midyear achievement data that shows improving interim scores in several grades but continued gaps in proficiency at middle and high school levels.

"Tier 1 is considered effective when 80 percent of students reach mastery," Dr. Jonathan Brown, director of assessment and data, told the board as he reviewed curriculum-embedded (tier 1) assessments and nationally normed interim measures such as NWEA and the preACT. The district reported rising median percentiles in NWEA math for most grades compared with last winter, while reading showed mixed results by grade.

The presentation emphasized that tier 1 — district core instruction and curriculum-embedded assessments — should yield high rates of mastery if implementation is successful. Brown said elementary students showed the strongest tier-1 proficiency: "Kindergarten and first grade students showed the highest levels of proficiency with 52 percent of monolingual students and 42 percent of dual language students averaging proficient levels," he said. For reading comprehension and middle-grade English language arts, the proportion meeting the district's tier-1 proficiency standard was lower: Brown reported roughly 21 percent to 45 percent at different grade bands depending on subject and grade.

At the high school level, interim preACT results indicated low proportions of students on track for ACT benchmarks: Brown reported about 29 percent on target in English, 17 percent in reading, 8 percent in math and 7 percent in science. "If a composite score of 22 or more is desired, at this time, 12 percent of our eleventh grade students achieved that," he said.

Jennifer Rice De La Sanchez, director of teaching and learning, outlined district next steps focused on curriculum and instruction, including continued monthly professional development, coaching for curriculum implementation, LETRS and Orton-Gillingham training, and the creation of course assessments in the district's Illuminate platform. Rice said the district will continue monthly tier-1 site visits and coaching to build data literacy and support classroom instruction.

Board members pressed for concrete interventions tied to the data. Several members asked for a deeper high-school presentation on how the district will prepare students for the ACT transition, including more detail on ACT prep participation, summer supports for rising sixth graders and intensive reading programs for older students.

Administrators said they would return with more targeted plans. Brown and Rice framed the midyear results as baseline and diagnostic information to guide professional development, targeted interventions and adjustments in sequencing and curriculum articulation between elementary, middle and high school.