Progress monitoring shows mixed gains for Creighton's emerging multilingual learners; board approves Goal 3 report

The Creighton School District governing board approved the district's progress-monitoring report for SOFG (Student Outcomes Focused Governance) Goal 3, which targets increased English-language proficiency among emerging multilingual learners.

District staff told the board the long-term goal is to raise the share of emerging multilingual students who increase one or more AzELLA proficiency levels from 25% in August 2023 to 40% by August 2028. The annual target for the current cycle was an increase from 28% (Aug. 2024) to 31% (Aug. 2025). Staff presented interim measures and said new AzELLA results were not yet available but that benchmark data showed positive momentum.

The district reported 1,591 multilingual learners across its schools. Site counts provided to the board were: Biltmore Preparatory Academy 52, Excelencia 190, Gateway 236, Larry C. Kennedy 67, Loma Linda 178, Monte Vista 247, Papago 256, Creighton Academy 126, and W. T. Mackin (Mac) 239.

For the current internal measure (DNA English Language Arts benchmark) staff said the percent of emerging multilingual students showing leveled growth rose from 10% in May 2024 with a target of 20% by May 2025. Teachers and coaches reported a strong pre-to-midyear jump this year (roughly a 25% increase from pretest 1 to pretest 2 at interim), but staff noted the district still needs about an additional 11 percentage points by May to meet that interim target.

District staff described inputs they are using: professional development on Structured English immersion (SCI) with one cohort of 40 targeted SCI teachers (three of four sessions complete as of March), an additional smaller targeted cohort of 11 teachers who have completed consultant training plus one remaining one-on-one coaching day, four literacy-and-language instructional coaches who completed state training, and eight teachers presently implementing a new instructional resource (Language Power). Staff also reported family-engagement events tied to SCI with participation that varied by quarter (quarter 1: 35; quarter 2: 89; most recent quarter: 99 students/attendees) and noted attendance dips coincident with community immigration events.

Sarah Beth George, the district's coordinator for literacy and languages, presented student- and teacher-survey results: in a sample of 197 students in cohort teachers' classrooms, 73% said they "enjoy" reading and writing lessons in English, and teachers rated training highly and called it a "game changer." Staff also described a plan to contact families to verify preferred written-communication languages after discovering the district recorded 28 different home languages in its student system; staff said translating all required letters into every recorded language would have cost more than $60,000 and that the district will complete a verification project by June to target translations cost-effectively.

Board members asked for enrollment and model details, including how many students are served under different SCI delivery models (pullout, two-hour, dual-language immersion) and how the district might prioritize master schedules and coaching to favor models showing the greatest impact. Staff said they will bring class-size and model-count data in a future report.

President Carrillo moved to approve the SOFG Goal 3 progress-monitoring report; the motion was seconded and approved by voice vote.

Staff said they will bring verified AzELLA results in May and recommended expanding effective professional learning cohorts and aligning coaching caseloads to priority teachers (for example, K-3 literacy coaches focused on K-3 teachers). The board also discussed using Renaissance's AzELLA mimic (FastBridge/Renaissance tools) as an interim language measure but emphasized avoiding over-testing emerging multilingual students.

No changes to policy were made at the meeting; the board approved the presented progress-monitoring report for Goal 3.