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Board approves IGA with Vail for Beyond Textbooks pilot at Lake Pleasant Elementary after evaluation
Summary
Peoria Unified approved an intergovernmental agreement with Vail Unified to allow Lake Pleasant Elementary teachers access to the Beyond Textbooks planning tool for 2025–26, following a district evaluation that reported math gains and improved teacher planning.
The Peoria Unified School District governing board voted Aug. 28 to approve an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Vail Unified School District enabling Lake Pleasant Elementary teachers to use the Beyond Textbooks platform for the 2025–26 school year, subject to continued program evaluation.
District evaluators presented results from a program evaluation conducted during the pilot year. Richard O’Neil, the district program evaluator, summarized three research questions: whether teachers found the platform made planning more efficient; whether it helped develop and analyze common formative assessments; and whether student academic outcomes improved.
Key findings
- Teacher planning and assessment practice: Surveys showed a roughly 20 percentage‑point increase in teachers reporting the tool improved planning and common formative assessment work; changes reached statistical significance compared with control survey items. - Student achievement: Classrooms that implemented Beyond Textbooks showed a 5.2 percentage‑point increase in mathematics proficiency relative to peer classrooms not using the tool; that difference met the study’s threshold for statistical significance. English‑language arts showed a 1.2 percentage‑point increase that did not reach the study’s statistical threshold.
District safeguards and limitations
Administrators emphasized that the platform access for Peoria Unified is teacher‑facing only: students do not access the Beyond Textbooks website, teacher‑submitted resource contributions were disabled for district teachers, and the district added an explicit prohibition on sharing student‑identifiable information with the vendor. Article language in the IGA was edited to align with the board’s DEI and “equal education opportunity” expectations.
Board action and next steps
The board approved the IGA for Lake Pleasant Elementary for 2025–26, with a condition that the district continue program evaluation to monitor effectiveness and implementation fidelity. The motion passed on a unanimous voice vote. District staff said they will continue to monitor results, expand evaluation measures, and report follow‑up findings to the board.
