River Falls special education goal sets target: 80% of students with disabilities to show above-average growth

River Falls School District presented a new special education goal to the Board of Education: that 80 percent of all special education students will show above-average growth on student growth percentile measures from fall to spring.

Mark Inouye, the district's director for student services, described the WIG and the rationale behind it. "The special education WIG is essentially that 80 percent of all of our special education students will show above average growth as measured by ... universal reading screeners from the fall to the spring," Inouye said. He told the board the district will use a combination of measures, including AIMSweb Plus, FastBridge and STAR, and the student growth percentile (SGP) metric to compare growth among students with similar starting points.

Why it matters: The WIG expands the focus beyond students already in intervention to include the full special education population. Using SGPs allows the district to measure growth relative to national samples of students with comparable starting scores and to evaluate whether interventions and instructional changes are producing measurable results.

Baseline data and lead measures Inouye said the district's baseline figures (drawn from recent internal data digs and earlier intervention-focused analyses) showed roughly 48 percent of elementary students who had been in intervention were showing above-average growth and about 49 percent at the high school level. The WIG therefore sets an improvement target to reach 80 percent by adjusting interventions, coordinating practices across buildings and making screening and progress-monitoring more consistent.

He identified several lead measures and strategies: aligning screening tools across buildings; job-alike PLCs (professional learning community) so special education staff can share effective interventions; using new intervention resources (Reading Path at the middle school, revised skills classes at the high school); and ensuring students make a good-faith effort on screeners so data accurately reflects learning. "Some students... don't give their exact equal efforts when it comes to FastBridge or STAR," Inouye said, and the district plans steps to address that, including retesting where needed.

Screening timing and state actions Inouye told the board the district's rollout of fall screening was delayed by state timetable changes under Act 20. "That's related to Act 20... because of the delays from the state level, we weren't able to do it," he said, explaining that the district used winter as an initial screening period this year in order to avoid using two different measures in the same year.

Scope, costs and constraints Board members asked about scale and cost. Inouye said roughly 14 percent of River Falls students are served by special education. He also noted that special education spending (combining funds 10 and 27) is "very close to about 14% of our total budget," meaning the district covers a significant portion of these services locally.

Next steps and monitoring Inouye said the district will monitor SGPs several times a year and compare data across interventions to determine what is working. He emphasized collaboration across buildings and noted barriers such as changing screeners and the need to ensure students take assessments seriously. The WIG will be monitored against the district's strategic plan goals and reported to the board as data becomes available.