District presents VTCAP and STAR 360 results, plans K–8 proficiency-scale alignment and professional development

Amanda Riggleman, the district director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, presented spring 2024 VTCAP results and fall/winter STAR 360 benchmark data and described steps the district will take to align instructional expectations across K–8.

Riggleman told the Barre Unified Union School District #97 board that the VTCAP data show mixed cohort proficiency changes in ELA and math and that STAR 360 benchmark data show notable student growth during the current school year. “The BCAP assessments are designed as an end of course or end of year assessment that measures student proficiency against a fixed set of criteria,” Riggleman said, adding that the district uses multiple data sources rather than a single test to guide instruction.

The presentation stressed that though some cohorts started the year at lower proficiency levels than the previous year, early-year growth from fall to winter increased more in 2024 than in 2023 for certain cohorts. Riggleman noted the district’s student-growth-percentile output from STAR 360, saying a large share of students showed “at or above typical growth from fall to winter,” and called that a positive signal of teachers’ instructional impact.

Board members asked about the drop in proficiency from 8th to 9th grade on the VTCAP. Riggleman and high school staff described the transition as a known concern and said the district is responding with greater alignment and a planned 9th-grade academy to support the freshman transition. “There is an increase in conversation and alignment between our 8th grade, our middle school teachers into our 9th grade, into our high school,” Riggleman said; a high school staff member added that the school has “fewer remedial math classes this year… and the trend is looking good.”

To reduce inconsistency districtwide, Riggleman outlined a plan to adopt common proficiency scales (learning progressions tied to standards) for K–8 ELA and math by the end of the school year and to publish those scales on a public-facing site. The scales will define “developing,” “proficient” and “exemplary” levels tied to the Common Core and the standards Vermont assesses on VTCAP, she said. The district also plans to use the scales to build grade-level scope-and-sequence documents and to align classroom assessments.

Next steps Riggleman described include a needs-based professional development plan for 2025–26 emphasizing structured literacy (the science of reading) in literacy instruction, evidence-based math interventions and professional learning communities focused on four PLC questions: what to teach, how to know students learned it, and how to respond when they have or have not learned it.

Board members asked how the board can support implementation; the superintendent said the administration already intends to align roughly $300,000 of grant funding toward professional development and will return to the board with budget requests and specifics during the budget process.

District officials said they will bring further analysis and future reports showing cohort trends year to year and will present the K–8 proficiency scales and the proposed professional development plan when ready.