Jacksonville North Pulaski officials review ATLAS results, outline steps for Read‑By‑3 and numeracy laws

At a regular Jacksonville North Pulaski School District board meeting, curriculum staff presented ATLAS assessment results and described planned responses to recent state laws on third‑grade reading and numeracy.

Dr. Amanda Picard, representing the district's curriculum partnerships team, told the board the briefing was intended to answer frequent community questions about the Read‑By‑3 third‑grade retention law, the numeracy law and how the district manages curriculum adoptions. "This is not the data report. This is a report from curriculum about it's kind of 3 things that we get asked the most," Picard said, describing the legal requirements and district actions.

Picard summarized the Read‑By‑3 requirement: students not on grade level in third grade are recommended for retention unless qualifying factors apply. She said the district has been preparing through parent plans, video lessons and targeted supports started in earlier grades. On math, Picard said the numeracy law requires "high dosage tutoring" for students not proficient in math; the district identified math as its lowest subject and moved to increase interventions.

Picard said the district will stop using DreamBox after a pilot and will adopt a program called Think First, which she described as an "AI partial program" with additional diagnostic measures intended to scale tutoring and intervention more effectively.

Board members asked about early identification for students at risk of retention; Picard said the district already maintains lists of students showing low scores and that parents receive signed plans when a child's score indicates a risk. The board clarified that qualifying exceptions (for example, an IEP or a 504 plan) will remain part of how the district applies the Read‑By‑3 recommendations.

On test trends, Picard walked the board through ATLAS proficiency boxes and grade‑by‑grade results. She said district proficiency remains below the threshold for academic distress but that the district stayed out of Level 4 this cycle. Picard highlighted continuing struggles in transition grades (third, sixth and ninth) and noted improvement in several schools and grades. "That's our ATLAS data kind of in a nutshell," she said.

The presentation also included recently released AP exam results and college‑readiness scores. Picard highlighted that the district's AP art program exceeded global averages and that pass rates across AP exams were up about 6 percentage points from the previous year.

Separately, Dr. Walker reported that the district received a mental‑health grant for middle and high schools to provide in‑school mental‑health professionals beginning this fall.

Why it matters: the Read‑By‑3 and numeracy laws change local practice by requiring retention review and specified tutoring interventions. The board's choices of curriculum, digital tools and intervention programs will determine how the district meets those requirements and how parents are notified when a student is at risk.

What to watch next: Picard said a fuller data packet will be provided next month for board review; the district will implement Think First for math interventions in the coming school year and begin the mental‑health program in the fall.