West Bend presents assessment results, shifts kindergarten math pilot to diagnostic under Act 20

Tina Van Roe, the district assessment coordinator for the West Bend Joint School District No. 1, told the school board on June 23 that the district piloted a kindergarten math assessment this year and recommends keeping the tool but using it as a diagnostic rather than a universal screener.

The change is tied to implementation of Act 20, the state’s early literacy law, which prompted extra assessment in early grades. "This year, we know that we did a little bit extra assessing especially in the lanes of literacy due to the new Act 20 law that came through for our earliest learners in elementary school," Van Roe said.

Nut graf: The report lays out how West Bend used a mix of local and vendor-provided screeners and diagnostics this year — including a free USNS pilot for kindergarten math, aimsweb plus in grades K–3 to meet Act 20 requirements, and STAR (referred to as STAAR in presentation slides) for K–8 — and explains the district’s plan to track cohorts as state assessment results become available in the fall.

Van Roe said the USNS kindergarten math pilot ‘‘served better as a diagnostic than a screener’’ because the free version assessed only a few skills. She recommended moving USNS from a screening to a diagnostic role next year so teachers can use it to target interventions without increasing teachers’ assessment burden.

On aimsweb plus (the screener selected by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to meet Act 20 requirements), Van Roe said 4K students took spring administrations this year and that 60 percent met the benchmark on the letter-word sound fluency subtest, the only 4K subtest with national norms this year. For grades K–3, aimsweb plus results showed 66–68 percent of kindergarten students at or above the 20th percentile composite (letter names and letter sounds), while grades 1–3 were assessed on oral reading fluency (ORF) tied to at‑risk determinations under the law.

Van Roe cautioned that STAR (universal screener used K–8 since 2018–19) and other local screeners show a common winter spike and spring decline pattern in some grades; she said the district will wait for full state data before drawing conclusions. Using STAR and predictive alignment with Wisconsin Forward state assessment, Van Roe said the district currently expects roughly two-thirds of students to meet state benchmarks in the coming year.

Board members asked for clarification about benchmarks and norms. Van Roe said the district sets its own internal expectations (for example, an 80 percent STAR benchmark goal) while complying with the law’s requirement that students be at or above the 20th percentile to avoid an at‑risk designation.

The presentation included next steps: the district plans to circulate a cleaned-up assessment calendar to the curriculum committee, perform summer data digs with building leaders, and report detailed state results in October once DPI releases the embargoed data. Van Roe told the board the accountability report cards that trigger state ratings will follow in November.

Ending: Van Roe said the district will continue to monitor cohorts that used the new curriculum, assessment, and resources, and will present an updated assessment calendar and findings to the curriculum committee and the full board in coming months.