Manatee releases raw PM3 results: district expects record score; third‑grade reading remains a focus

The School District of Manatee County presented raw spring PM3 (FAST and STAR) assessment results on June 24, saying preliminary district totals indicate sustained academic growth across multiple grade bands and an expectation that the district will exceed last year’s accountability score.

Why it matters: Spring assessment results shape school grades, district accountability, targeted interventions and summer programming. Board members pressed for school‑level PM1‑to‑PM3 growth data and clarification about test platforms and how acceleration affected math results.

What staff presented - Interim Chief Academic Officer Chad Jensen introduced the data and Evan McCarthy, director of assessment and research, who walked the board through platform differences (k–2 in Renaissance/STAR; grades 3–10 in the Cambium FAST platform) and how parents can view individual results via the state Family Portal through the district Focus portal. - Staff emphasized these were raw PM3 results that the Florida Department of Education will clean and use to calculate official school and district grades; state releases are expected after June 30. - Aggregate indicators: Jensen said last year’s district score was 739 points in the state accountability matrix and that the district expects to beat that number based on raw PM3 results.

Areas of progress and concern - Reading/ELA: Staff reported positive growth at many grade bands but noted third grade proficiency remains a concern; third grade was cited at about 52% proficiency in the district’s raw PM3 distribution (district presenters said this is the highest they have seen in the district’s modern assessment era but remains an area for focus). - Math: District staff explained a shift in above‑grade acceleration placements for math (students enrolled in accelerated courses were tested on higher‑grade exams), which complicates year‑to‑year comparisons. For example, fourth‑grade proficiency can look worse on paper if accelerated fourth graders took the fifth‑grade exam; staff showed that most accelerated cohorts made large gains from PM1 to PM3 (one accelerated cohort moved from roughly 13% proficient at PM1 to about 90% proficient by PM3 in the same cohort’s end‑of‑year exam, according to district slides). - Science and social studies: Staff highlighted district outperformance of the state in fifth‑ and eighth‑grade science and civics EOC gains, crediting new instructional materials and progress monitoring.

Board questions and requests - Board members asked for school‑level PM1‑to‑PM3 growth reports and cohort tracking to see how students progress year to year; staff said a larger slide set with PM1‑to‑PM3 data by school exists and will be provided. - Members sought clarification on platform differences for k–2 and how kindergarten probable readers are routed from STAR Early Literacy to STAR Reading for PM2/PM3; staff said testing pathways vary across schools and offered to supply a kindergarten breakdown showing how many students took each instrument.

What the district will do next Staff said student roster clean‑up has been submitted to the state and the state’s deadline to release assessment results is June 30. The district expects school and district grades shortly after that and told the board it will return with cleaned accountability numbers and school‑level growth displays at a future meeting.

Context: The board and administrators also discussed summer supports, literacy coaching plans and targeted interventions to raise third‑grade proficiency, topics already raised at earlier workshops.