Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Strategic Plan Progress topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Midyear formative assessment: Canton district reports progress on goals and data-driven instruction
Summary
Superintendent Follin presented a midyear update on district goals, including a student-learning target (3% MCAS increase), professional practice work around a 5–8 transition team and MTSS/Project Lead The Way expansion; administrators highlighted PowerSchool data tools and work on disproportionality in discipline.
Superintendent Follin presented the district’s midyear formative assessment on Jan. 23, reporting progress on the strategic plan’s goals and describing action steps the schools are taking to support student learning and operational improvements.
District leaders said the first instructional goal targets a 3% increase in students meeting or exceeding in ELA and math on MCAS. Administrators emphasized writing and open-response instruction, data-driven small-group interventions and benchmark assessments as levers for progress. "If you want to increase your scores on a standardized test... it all gets down to your writing," Follin said.
Under professional practice, Follin and staff described plans to assemble a 5–8 middle‑school transition team and to review other districts that operate 5–8 models to identify curriculum, logistics and transportation issues. The district also is reviewing therapeutic‑classroom models and said it will consult with partner organizations to learn best practices.
On equity and the Student Opportunity Act (SOA) goal, administrators reported building out MTSS tracking in PowerSchool to better monitor subgroup performance, with targeted screening tools and supports for students with disabilities, multilingual learners, and historically underperforming subgroups. The district aims for a 2% increase for certain subgroups this year and will continue data cycles and differentiated instruction to support those gains.
Follin and staff also discussed business and operational improvements—purchasing and capital project tracking, stronger fiscal controls and clearer reporting; community engagement tied to the new GMS project (outreach, 145 public meetings during design and advocacy work) was noted as a recent success. The administration flagged discipline/disproportionality as an ongoing area of attention: suspension rates had in some measures risen compared with this point last year, though some subgroup trends (Hispanic/Latino) had improved.
Administrators said they will continue to use data dashboards, conduct learning walks and align professional development to identified instructional needs; the administration also committed to periodic public updates through a district newsletter and digital materials.
