Garden City schools report mixed FastBridge reading results; district plans curriculum review

District curriculum staff delivered the Garden City Board of Education a winter FastBridge reading-screening update that showed mixed results across grade levels and described steps the district is taking to strengthen early reading instruction.

The presentation, given during the board's regular meeting, emphasized that some cohorts show measurable one-year gains while fall-to-winter comparisons sometimes drop because benchmarks become more demanding. Staff singled out first grade as the area with the largest gap compared with national averages and said that kindergarten and several other grades show progress tied to recent instruction changes.

Why it matters: FastBridge is used as an early screener to flag students who may need diagnostic testing or targeted intervention. District leaders said screening data are guiding teacher training and intervention placement and will inform the upcoming English language arts curriculum adoption.

The update noted programmatic changes made over the last two years: Heggerty for phonemic awareness and UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Institute) for phonics were adopted districtwide. Staff reported LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) training is required for K–3 teachers for state licensure renewal and that the district is building local LETRS facilitators to provide ongoing coaching. The district reported that roughly 200 elementary teachers and 40 early childhood teachers will have completed LETRS by the end of the year, and that six staff members are being prepared as in-house facilitators.

Key data and trends described by staff: - First grade: staff said winter CBM (curriculum-based measurement) passage reading remains the district's largest concern; assessments shift from short sentence measures in early first grade to full-page CBM tasks in winter, and students often struggle with that step-change. Staff reported that some first-grade measures fell compared with fall, but cohorts showed gains compared with last spring; the presentation signaled a need for more daily practice with decodable connected text. - Kindergarten: staff reported improvements in phonemic awareness measures tied to Heggerty; one slide noted a 6.2 percentage-point change in an onset-sound skill between fall and winter for current kindergarteners, and a larger percentage increase when comparing the same cohort year-over-year. - Upper elementary and middle school: staff said third- through sixth-grade cohorts show year-over-year gains in some phonics and fluency measures, and that focused training in intermediate and middle schools on phonics implementation has contributed to those gains. - High school: staff reported notable gains in benchmark achievement by grade level (for example, staff noted 12% more ninth-graders met benchmarks from fall to winter, which staff said represented 68 additional students); staff also cited gains among ESL and students with disabilities at the high-school level.

Screening and identification: Staff reiterated that FastBridge is an over-identifying screener by design (staff said FastBridge flags at about the 40th percentile while the technical definition for reading difficulty is more like the 30th percentile). Staff explained the district also uses diagnostics that help pinpoint whether a student's difficulty is phonemic awareness, phonics, or broader reading comprehension/vocabulary needs.

Training and implementation: District staff said implementation remains a priority: earlier cohorts of LETRS-trained teachers had better student outcomes and the district saw about a 20% difference in student performance when comparing classes taught by LETRS participants versus nonparticipants in the initial pilot. Staff said their focus now is shifting from “learning” to “implementation,” including coaching cycles, classroom observations by instructional coaches, and targeted interventions.

Curriculum adoption process: The district plans to select a new ELA curriculum aligned with the science of reading. Staff said they will rely on external reviews and partners (examples cited in the meeting: KSTE, TNTP, EdReports, and KSDE guidance) to evaluate materials for phonics and phonemic-awareness components. The board was told the adoption process will be discussed in more detail at the next board meeting.

District leaders described implementation risks and next steps. They said UFLI has been in place about a year and a half and some students still need more daily practice on connected decodable texts; staff recommended increasing time spent on decodables and connected texts and continuing targeted interventions in grades 5–8 for students who came through earlier balanced-literacy programs.

Board members asked about classroom-level data and supports for teachers. Staff said principals and instructional coaches receive classroom- and teacher-level data during PLCs and that coaches and principals jointly provide feedback, observations, and action steps. The presentation included district-level numbers and the staff said they can break data down to the teacher level on request.

What the board directed or will do next: Staff said they will bring the spring FastBridge results, continue tracking cohort growth versus fall-to-winter changes, provide follow-up information about preschool-to-kindergarten tracking at Garfield early childhood center, and present the detailed plan and timeline for the ELA adoption at the next meeting.

Staff contact and presenters: district curriculum staff presented the update and answered board questions during the meeting.