Board hears annual review of summer school, new student-level testing data and literacy plans

The Cape Girardeau School Board heard a report on summer school performance, district assessment data and the district—s literacy planning during its September meeting.

District staff presented results for the most recent summer program and described new tools that will let teachers see student-level performance on state standards. The presentation also covered plans to align district reading interventions with new state guidance on literacy and the use of Reading Service Plans (RSPs).

"This year, we, overall went down just a little bit," said Mister Russell, a district academic staff member, summarizing enrollment and participation compared with the prior year. Russell said the district served fewer students in summer school than the prior yearabout "50 kids" fewer across sites, which reduced staffing needs and lowered the summer-school budget by about $6,000.

Russell described how summer offerings differ by level: elementary programs emphasize short-term reading and math supports (he noted the elementary program runs nine days), middle school blends enrichment with CTC partnerships, and high school programs focus mainly on credit recovery and credit acceleration. He reported nearly 200 credits earned at the high school and 32 credits at Central Academy during the summer session.

Russell said the district provides meals and transportation for nearly every student who signs up for summer school, but persistent attendance remains a challenge: "It's totally understandable," he said, "but giving those kids those opportunities and making sure that they know ... if you guys don't do summer school, this is what's gonna happen." He and board members discussed barriers including student work schedules, drivers' licenses and teacher availability for specialized enrichment courses.

Staff also reported new access to student-level results returned by the state testing vendor. Russell said the district has, for the first time k-12, a dataset that maps every student to every tested standard and will let principals and teachers examine where students show strengths or gaps. "This is the first year that we've gotten our data back from the testing company that has every student, every standard, and how well they did on it," Russell said. He warned the data requires cleanup (standard coding issues and matching students to prior-year teachers) before broad release to teachers and the public; much of the state data is currently embargoed while appeals and double-count checks are completed.

On literacy and RSPs, staff said the district remains under a waiver for some statewide individual-skill assessments but expects updated state guidance this year. The district is reviewing whether one-minute fluency measures remain the best approach and examining options to improve assessment accuracy and classroom application. Staff said the state—s literacy guidance will help align ELA curriculum with RSP processes so teachers can better target interventions.

Board members asked how the new data and literacy work will translate to classroom practice; Russell said the combination of student-level state data and existing Galileo benchmarks should give teachers clearer, more actionable information about what to teach next. "It gives teachers the size of what they need to work," Russell said, describing the intended practical benefit for instruction.

The report concluded with next steps: finish data-cleanup with the testing vendor, roll out teacher-level reports, continue monthly data meetings, and circulate a state-provided literacy survey to board members and staff for initial input. Staff said public release of state test results is expected in the coming weeks after the state completes its processing and appeals window.

Board members had no immediate action on the report; staff said more detailed data and the district literacy plan will return for future review.