Christina Tiernan, coordinator of math performance, told the District 49 board Oct. 23 that STAR Math participation for the current fall assessment was approximately 96 percent and that the district has seen steady gains in proficiency since 2021-22, when proficiency was reported at about 31.6 percent.

Tiernan said proficiency remains lowest in middle school and that the district’s Mission DNA grant is focused on grades and teachers most likely to influence middle-school math readiness. She described Mission DNA 2 as including roughly 110 teachers, leaders and coaches across grades 3–12 and affecting just over 4,300 students. Tiernan also described a cohort breakdown shown in her slides: about 322 students affected in grades 3–5 by current professional development, roughly 377 in a seasoned-teacher cohort, and just over 3,600 students affected in grades 6–12 by Mission DNA work (numbers noted as potentially fluid in a military community).

Tiernan said the district is creating a secondary reference library and using classroom videos and affirmation-walks to highlight instructional moves. She noted the research benchmark that roughly 49 hours of professional development are typically required before a teacher will make sustained instructional shifts and argued that coaches providing side-by-side work are an important complement to PD; she said the district had been down one coach this year but had recently hired for that position with Title funding that is time-limited.

Board members asked how the board could support continued gains; Tiernan and other board members said continuing the multi-year focus on middle-school achievement and investing in coaching capacity were key. Director DiValla and other board members praised the implementation and expressed support for continued emphasis on middle school.

Outcome: This was reported as an information update. No formal action or motion was recorded in the provided transcript excerpt.