South Huntington presents I‑Ready results, outlines Savvas ELA rollout and ongoing professional development

Dr. Hender, presenting to the South Huntington Union Free School District Board of Education, on behalf of district curriculum staff, reviewed the district’s fall I‑Ready results and described implementation of the Savvas English language arts curriculum across elementary schools.

The presentation covered four years of I‑Ready data and comparisons to state and national norms, and explained how Savvas was selected and deployed. "It's my distinct pleasure and honor to be presenting some of our I Ready fall results today, as well as some of our Savvas implementation pieces that we have done this year," Dr. Hender said.

The nut graf: district leaders said most students scored in the green or yellow ranges on fall diagnostics, that results are broadly stable year‑to‑year, and that early classroom data and educator feedback on Savvas are positive. Dr. Hender said teachers reported students were reading words in December that staff would not have expected until later in the year, and the district will run a winter diagnostic to measure growth.

Administrators described three implementation priorities for Savvas: a cohesive elementary scope and sequence, ongoing professional development and teacher feedback loops, and monitoring and evaluation. The district produced a one‑page curriculum reference for teachers, set up an anonymous feedback form for classroom staff, and convened a Savvas decision‑making team to review teacher experience.

Board members asked about dual‑language alignment, the duration of professional development and outstanding issues. In reply, Dr. Hender said the Savvas program is available in both English and Spanish and is designed so students can read the same skills in both languages week to week. "It really helps mirror that dual language where we're exposing students 50% to the English language and 50% to the Spanish language as well," Dr. Hender said. He added that professional development will be ongoing and supplemented by an in‑house curriculum coach.

The board was told the district will start a winter diagnostic next week and hold building‑level data review meetings that may lead to individual student interventions. The presentation named Jessica Sauer as the curriculum coach who will start on Monday and replace a departing staff member; district leaders said the coach will provide day‑to‑day in‑building support.

District officials described next steps: analyze winter diagnostic results, convene principals and assistant principals for data days, hold building committees to determine interventions, and continue collecting anonymous teacher feedback on Savvas for iterative adjustments.

Ending: The board thanked staff for the work on curriculum mapping and Savvas rollout and said it will review updated diagnostics and growth data later in the school year.