Central York SD reports steady start on math and ELA beginning-of-year assessments; rostering issue may affect some 7th-grade growth

Central York School District staff presented beginning-of-year math and English language arts assessment results to the curriculum committee on Oct. 6, reporting broadly steady starting points compared with last year and identifying follow-up tasks after discovering a rostering problem that may affect reported 7th-grade math gains.

Dr. Uchak, a district staff member, led the presentation and said the district is “really looking for numbers to be lower percentages here in this far below and below category” as a measure of progress. The presentation combined Into Math growth measures (K–9) with district usage of Acadience, IXL, Wonders and a district diagnostic called CAPTI for reading measures.

Why it matters: The beginning-of-year figures set the baseline teachers use to plan instruction and remediation. Staff said they already used a September professional-development day for grade-level and building-level data analysis and that the results will inform classroom instruction and midyear checks.

Key findings presented

- Kindergarten: 31.8% on or above grade level, a 1.9-percentage-point increase over last year’s beginning-of-year number. - Grade 1: 38.6% on or above, a 5.1-point decrease versus last year’s beginning-of-year figure; staff said the cohort made progress last year but ended the prior year weaker than hoped. - Grade 2: modest decrease (about 0.2 percentage point). - Grades 3–4: began the year close to prior patterns and showed improvement last year overall. - Grade 5: down nearly 6 percentage points compared with last year’s beginning-of-year number; staff said the prior fourth-grade cohort experienced shifts after the Pennsylvania Core standards implementation. - Grade 6: near a 60% benchmark; down about 1 percentage point. - Grade 7: reported growth of 21.9 percentage points on the Into Math growth measure; staff cautioned this figure may be inflated because of rostering and assessment-assignment issues in the HMH (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) system and said they have an open, escalated help ticket with HMH to verify the results. - Grade 8: down about 3.5 points but starting from a relatively strong level (reported at about 63.8% on or above). - Grade 9 (Algebra A/B cohort): 27.4% on or above; this is the first year the district is reporting that cohort on the growth table so no prior comparison was provided.

Assessment tools and interpretation

Staff described Into Math as the district’s growth measure for K–9 math and said Acadience (a timed screening tool) is used for several early grades in both reading and math-related fluency measures. For grades where Acadience was not used, district staff reported IXL diagnostics, Wonders (reading program assessments), and a district-captured diagnostic called CAPTI as sources of data. Dr. Uchak said Acadience is time-based and grows more rigorous at each administration, which can produce apparent decreases when the test’s complexity increases between administrations.

Staff also reported that Acadience and CAPTI now provide Lexile measures; the district plans to extract Lexile reports from Performance Matters so teachers can match texts to student reading levels. Dr. Uchak said staff will attempt to pull CAPTI subtest reports and other disaggregated subtest data for the committee.

Professional development and classroom implications

Committee members were told the district dedicated a September in-service day to guided data analysis at district, grade, building and classroom levels. Staff and principals reported the extra time gave teachers “ample opportunity” to examine classroom-level data and consider instructional changes. Several committee members praised the steadiness of the data and the district’s approach to giving teachers time to analyze it.

Follow-up and cautions

District staff flagged three follow-up items they said they will return to the committee with: - Verification of the grade 7 Into Math results after HMH resolves an ongoing rostering/assignment help ticket; staff said they escalated the ticket to their HMH customer-success manager. - Disaggregated CAPTI subtest and Acadience subtest reports if available, to show fluency, phonological awareness and comprehension breakdowns. - Final PSSA and Keystone reporting once state releases stabilize; staff said preliminary PSSA data typically arrive in June and state-attribute windows can shift some percentages, and that the FRI (a district/state reporting step) usually releases in early November, after which the district will share final standardized-test results.

Quotes from the meeting

“We're really looking for numbers to be lower percentages here in this far below and below category,” Dr. Uchak said while reviewing the growth table. On the rostering problem he added, “It looks really good and it may really be, but it might be a little bit inflated. We have to see because … we've had a help ticket in for about a month, with HMH, and we've actually escalated that.”

Meeting context and next steps

Committee members asked whether the district has been able to complete pacing and curriculum coverage. Staff replied that Into Math pacing is on track in grade bands where it has been used for multiple years but acknowledged that new implementations — particularly for ELA in some grades — created slower pacing last year and prompted the district to pare back some unit assessments to essentials. Staff said they will report midyear progress and return with additional subtest and Lexile detail.

Ending

The committee did not take formal votes on these items. Staff said they will bring revised and disaggregated reports and verified grade 7 results to a future meeting and will post final state-standardized results once state attribution windows and the district’s FRI release are complete.