Austin ISD board accepts literacy monitoring report showing districtwide gains in K–2 interventions

The Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees on Thursday accepted the superintendent’s monitoring report on scorecard Goal 1, second-grade literacy intervention, after a presentation from district academic leaders.

The monitoring report showed the district’s proportion of second graders in the NWEA MAP recommended-for-intervention range dropped to 26% in spring 2025 from 30% in spring 2024, exceeding the board’s first-year target. District staff told trustees the largest year-over-year reductions were among several historically underserved groups, though African American students missed an aggressive target by two percentage points.

District officials said the gains reflect an intensive effort to implement structured literacy and high-quality instructional materials across K–2 classrooms, paired with coaching and a strengthened MTSS (multi-tiered system of supports). Dr. Mary Anne Maxwell, assistant superintendent of academics, told trustees “this is a really big deal” and credited year‑over‑year improvements to the systemwide effort to align instruction with the science of reading.

The presentation summarized three strands of the district’s approach: (1) adoption and classroom implementation of high-quality instructional materials and structured literacy routines; (2) expanded coaching, observation and feedback cycles for instructional leaders and teachers; and (3) stronger data systems for screening, progress monitoring and tiered interventions.

Liliana Kendrick, director of humanities, and Jennifer Pace, assistant superintendent of elementary schools, described the district’s next steps: expanding the lighthouse/learning‑lab model from three to six schools to intensify on‑site coaching, calibrating observation tools, tightening PLC (professional learning community) agendas, and improving parent engagement and goal‑setting supports.

Trustees pressed for deeper root‑cause analyses about persistent achievement gaps. Trustee Ann Foster asked whether observation protocols would measure “soft” teacher practices—who is called on in class, how students are engaged—and Dr. Maxwell said the district will build “equity‑focused observation” into instructional rounds at lighthouse campuses. Trustee Foster and others requested more granular reporting on how poverty, mobility and other cross‑cutting factors compound racial gaps.

The report highlighted 15 “outlier” campuses that reduced the percent of students recommended for intervention by the end of the school year; district leaders credited consistent use of HQIM, focused PLCs, weekly data analysis and support from content interventionists and instructional coaches. District staff also emphasized that some students showed more than a year’s growth on progress measures.

Trustees unanimously voted to accept the monitoring report as a formal acknowledgment of the conversation with the superintendent about how current reality aligns with board goals.

What happens next: district staff said they will continue to expand coaching, make learning labs available to additional campuses, tighten MTSS documentation and submit additional correlation reports to the board that link classroom observations to student outcomes. Trustees asked for follow‑up reports that disaggregate special education impacts, dual‑language/biliteracy results and growth measures by campus.

Provenance

Topic intro: “Our next item is part of our commitment to discuss student achievement, and we have a presentation on scorecard goal 1, our literacy GPM 1.1.” (transcript block starting at 1017.515 — evidence excerpt)

Topic finish: “That concludes our report and we'll open it up for questions.” (transcript block starting at 3432.775 — evidence excerpt)