Austin ISD reports districtwide decline in second‑grade students flagged for reading intervention; board accepts monitoring report

The Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees on March X accepted the superintendent's monitoring report on Goal Progress Measure 1.1, the district's second‑grade literacy intervention measure, after a presentation from district leaders on student screening data, programmatic supports and next steps.

The monitoring report showed that, comparing like assessment seasons, the proportion of second graders recommended for intervention on the NWEA MAP screener decreased for eight of 10 student groups from winter 2022–23 to winter 2023–24, district officials said. Superintendent Segura told trustees the district sees encouraging longitudinal declines from spring to spring while noting variability for small groups and the need for additional campus‑level root cause work.

Why this matters: The district ties second‑grade literacy work to a longer third‑grade reading goal that uses STAR as the accountability measure. Early screening and timely intervention are intended to reduce the number of students who require tier 2 and tier 3 supports, keeping more students in strong tier‑1 instruction.

District leaders framed the data and the district's response. Superintendent Segura summarized the goals: "The percent of third grade students earning meets grade level or above on the STAR reading assessment in English or Spanish will increase from 47 percent in June of 2024 to 59 percent by June of 2029." He said GPM 1.1 aims to reduce the share of second graders scoring in the MAP'recommended‑for‑intervention range (below the 30th national percentile in English; below the 40th percentile in Spanish) from 30 percent in June 2024 to 29 percent by June 2029.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Mary Ann Maxwell and Jennifer Pace, assistant superintendent of elementary schools, led trustees through MAP winter results. Maxwell described the MAP screener as an early indicator — "a check‑engine light" — that flags students for further diagnostic review rather than an immediate placement decision. She said district analysis compares like seasons (winter to winter, spring to spring) because targets differ by season.

Key findings cited in the presentation: - Eight of 10 student groups decreased in the percent recommended for intervention from winter 2023 to winter 2024. The groups with the largest long‑term decreases (spring to spring) included American Indian (26 percentage points), Hispanic/Latinx (23 points), special education (21 points), economically disadvantaged (18 points), emergent bilingual (17 points) and African American (12 points) over multiple years. District staff said these are longitudinal (multi‑year) improvements. - From winter to winter the African American group's percent recommended for intervention held steady at 59% (59% to 59%), a point of concern flagged by trustees. - Small cohorts (for example, the American Indian group with 12 students in 2023 and 10 in 2024) show high year‑to‑year variability; district staff noted this when interpreting percent changes.

What district leaders said they are doing: The presentation described system‑level supports tied to the Foundation First Early Childhood initiative and K–2 literacy work: increased alignment of curriculum and materials, expanded professional learning (including in‑person Reading Academy coaching cycles), regular instructional walkthroughs and coaching, a stronger multi‑tiered system of supports (MTSS) with guidance on intervention entry and exit, and targeted support for band 1 and band 2 campuses.

Jennifer Pace and Dr. Maxwell identified campus outliers with stronger results and said those campuses share practices: fidelity to high‑quality instructional materials (HQIM), consistent use of instructional coaches, calibrated leadership observations, active PLCs (professional learning communities), and data‑driven MTSS implementation. The district has begun site visits to outlier campuses to document practices it can replicate.

Trustees pressed for more evidence linking particular practices to outcomes. Trustee Kaufman asked where bilingual students are gaining most in English or Spanish; district staff said the report aggregates "best of" results for students who test in both languages and agreed to return disaggregated language‑by‑language analyses. Trustee Kaufman and others also asked for measurable indicators of PLC fidelity and other implementation outputs. Leaders said campuses typically maintain PLC records and that the MTSS implementation rubric provides one quantifiable tool already in use.

Equity concerns and next steps: Trustee Hunter and others pressed for specific, differentiated interventions for student groups that have not improved or have regressed in short windows. District staff said the next step is a campus‑level root cause analysis for African American students to identify site‑specific drivers and remediation strategies rather than relying solely on district‑level aggregates. Superintendent Segura and other staff also noted that the full deployment at scale of content interventionists funded through a tax ratification election has not yet been absorbed across campuses and that broader deployment in the next school year should provide additional tier‑2 and tier‑3 support capacity.

Family engagement: staff described district newsletters and multilingual materials (English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Mandarin) with three‑week modules aligned to curriculum, and said plans are underway to expand home reading supports that match students' instructional levels. Staff acknowledged limited ability to quantify family use of distributed materials and said they are exploring ways to track engagement.

Formal action: Secretary Gonzales moved to accept the monitoring report; Trustee Quintana seconded. The motion passed with all those on the dais voting in favor.

What trustees directed: Trustees asked the administration to (1) disaggregate bilingual student MAP results by testing language and report back, (2) perform campus‑level root cause analyses for African American students and campuses with lagging results, and (3) develop clearer, measurable "on‑track" definitions for GPMs to include in future monitoring reports.

Ending: District staff said professional learning and implementation work will continue over the spring and summer (including coach train‑the‑trainer sessions and rollout of reading academies), with additional monitoring reports and a planned follow‑up to show implementation outputs and more granular evidence tying practices to outcomes.