Ogden School District reports enrollment trends, test-score gains and expanded career programs

Superintendent Rasmussen provided a wide-ranging update on student enrollment, demographic composition and academic programs for the Ogden City School District, citing recent gains in early literacy, rising participation in concurrent enrollment and improvements in teacher retention.

Rasmussen said the district counted about 10,045 students as of Oct. 1 and is on a long-term downward trend statewide that appears to be stabilizing. The superintendent described the district as about 51 percent Hispanic and roughly 65 percent minority-majority overall; he said about 67 percent of students are economically disadvantaged and roughly 23 to 24 percent are learning English as a multilanguage learner. Rasmussen said the district’s mobility rate averages about 21.2 percent (students who change schools during a 160-day school year).

On academic outcomes, district leaders said the district met a key state reading-growth goal for the first time. “Sixty percent of our students in grades 1 through 3 were typical or better in reading growth as measured by our state assessment,” Rasmussen said, calling the result “the first time that that has…