Poudre School District presents midyear update on strategic plan and unified improvement plan; literacy and graduation gains noted

Poudre School District R-1 staff presented a midyear update on the district’s strategic plan and Unified Improvement Plan at the board’s Feb. 25 meeting, reporting gains in early literacy and growth in college- and career-related opportunities alongside continuing concerns about attendance and achievement gaps for some student groups.

District staff framed the update around three strategic priorities: literacy; mental health and belonging; and “graduate with options.” Presenters included Director of Curriculum and Instruction Amanda Krieger, Director of Career and Innovation Tanya Alcaraz, senior executive director of student services Liz Davis, DEI coordinator Delia Mahaney, and research director Dwayne Schmitz (monitoring report lead). Staff and teacher-leaders described work to implement adopted curricula, expand career and technical education (CTE) and concurrent-enrollment access, and develop direct instruction and reporting systems to address harassment and belonging.

Key findings and data presented - Early literacy: District staff reported that kindergarten-through-third-grade achievement effect size on the combined assessment set (DIBELS 8, MAP, CMAS) met the district target (an achievement effect size about 0.29) and showed year-over-year improvement; K–5 results also met or exceeded the district’s achievement target (0.25 effect size) in 2023–24. - Graduation: The district’s four-year graduation rate for the Class of 2024 was reported as 87.3 percent, the highest level shown in the monitoring report; the board and staff set a new ongoing target of 90 percent. - Growth for students receiving extra support: Schools implementing targeted interventions reported “catch-up” growth for students who entered the year below benchmarks; staff described a growth-effect target of 0.2 for students who receive additional supports and said multiple schools met or exceeded that threshold for reading or math. - Gaps and priorities: staff emphasized continuing work to “disrupt disproportionality.” District leaders cited persistent graduation- and achievement-rate gaps for students supported with IEPs and students eligible for free or reduced-price meals; they said some gains were visible year over year but that the district must continue focused work and staffing investments. - Attendance and chronic absenteeism: staff noted attendance’s strong academic relationship. Students attending at least 95% of days showed substantially higher achievement-effect results in the district’s analysis; chronic absenteeism (the state definition counts excused and unexcused absences over the year) remains an area of focus.

Program and process updates - Curriculum implementation: district and school teams are working to establish common scope-and-sequence documents and integrate curricular assessment plans, with professional learning and coaching aligned to adopted materials (including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for secondary ELA). - Graduate with options: staff reported expansion of individual career and academic planning (ICAP) work, a districtwide eighth-grade ICAP/college-and-career day at Colorado State University, and growing CTE and concurrent-enrollment participation; administrative teams are aligning ICAP documentation in district tools. - Mental health and belonging: staff described training for recognizing and responding to harassment and discrimination and pilot lessons in schools; staff said they are developing a sustainable train-the-trainer model and expanding work to manifest respectful, affirming classroom environments.

What board members asked and next steps Board members asked for more detail about interventions for students with disabilities, the data supporting Chromebook lifecycles, and attendance interventions. Staff said they will continue quarterly updates with monitoring-report detail and recommended targeted, school-level interventions where catch-up growth has shown results. The monitoring report and underlying data dashboards are available on the district website for members of the public to review.