Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Student Assessment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Midyear STAR results show steady within-year growth but flat year-to-year progress, Board told
Summary
District presenters showed midyear STAR assessment data: within-year growth remains strong among schools implementing district strategies, but year-to-year systemic growth is flat compared with the previous year; leadership highlighted target metrics and watch-list schools.
District staff presented the midyear STAR assessment snapshot, saying that within-year student growth remained strong in schools implementing the district’s instructional strategies but that year-to-year systemic growth was essentially flat compared with the previous year.
David (presenter) summarized district-level indicators for English language arts (ELA) and math, reporting that percent of students meeting or exceeding grade level on STAR was roughly 44.7% for ELA and that median growth percentiles (MGP) were about 52.6 and 50.6 on two referenced measures. Staff said ELA typically outpaces math by roughly 10 percentage points and emphasized the need to continue school-level strategies that produced within-year gains.
District leaders reviewed goals used to prioritize support: an MGP target of 54 or higher to indicate gap-closure growth and a district rule-of-thumb target of a 5 percentage-point increase in percent passing. Staff identified the number of schools meeting those targets and listed schools on watch lists where MGP or percent passing remain concerns; specific schools named in the presentation included Adams, Galileo and Mitchell among others.
Presenters and board members discussed causes and responses. Staff cited teacher coaching, fidelity to curricula (for example Eureka Math and STAR interim assessments), differentiated PD, student mobility and staffing stability as factors affecting outcomes. Staff said a roughly 0.8 correlation exists between staying on scope-and-sequence for the Eureka modules and improved STAR outcomes; they said the district would supply module/PD correlation data in upcoming reports.
Board members asked for deeper breakdowns, including cohort analyses, subgroup comparisons and comparisons to pre-COVID baselines. Staff said they could run cohort models and promised to provide historical and subgroup analyses including the requested side-by-side of free/reduced-price lunch and racial/ethnic subgroup outcomes.
Why it matters: the board framed midyear data as a prompt for targeted interventions and possible policy options. Staff described PD and coaching expansions aimed at increasing instructional quality across classrooms and said they will present timelines and more granular school-level interventions at future meetings.
