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District presents spring 5Essentials and STAR results; leaders flag summer slide and math implementation gaps
Summary
District leaders presented 5Essentials climate results and spring STAR assessment outcomes: district showed strengths in ambitious instruction while STAR showed 46% of students at grade level in ELA and 31% in math; staff noted summer learning loss and inconsistent implementation of math curriculum.
District academic and data leaders presented the board with the spring 5Essentials climate-and-culture survey results and STAR assessment outcomes, and discussed patterns they said will inform summer and fall work.
“...for the first time in our use of this tool, district wide, we have a green for the entire district, which is ambitious instruction,” said Dr. Kolicky, summarizing the 5Essentials results. The district-level 5Essentials findings showed improvement in some teacher-reported measures (student engagement, principal trust) and highlighted areas for attention—particularly adult culture measures (teacher-to-teacher trust) in secondary schools.
On STAR, administrators reported 46% of students at grade level in ELA and 31% at grade level in math in spring testing. The district’s median growth percentiles and other growth indicators were mixed; leaders stressed a larger-than-desired summer slide this year compared with the previous year and said analyses using a balanced panel of students who took all three STAR windows show that stability (students staying in one school) correlates with steadier growth.
District staff identified math implementation fidelity as a major lever. Academic leaders said Eureka Math is the district’s adopted K–8 curriculum but acknowledged varying levels of fidelity in classroom use; they argued implementation and teacher content support—not curriculum replacement—are priorities before considering different curricular options.
Officials highlighted several schools showing notable gains (Adams, Mitchell, Palmer among others) and said targeted coaching, PLC work, and instructional support were factors. Administrators also described tools and pilots—item-level analysis via STAR, Eureka end-of-module item protocols, and a pilot using PSAT-like practice items (Horizon)—that the district plans to scale to improve standards-aligned instruction and to reduce summer slide.
The board asked for additional school-level breakdowns and for more detail on parent-response rates for the 5Essentials; administrators said parent participation increased over the prior year and that more school-level data would be shared.
