Lindsey Jones, a teacher at Vonida Elementary, reported early kindergarten-through-3rd-grade screening results and described new, grade-level data protocols the school is using. Jones said the school used an Atlas screener for K–3 and found that kindergartners entered with higher levels of risk: 43 kindergarten students, about 72 percent, were marked “at risk” on the screener and 17 students (about 28 percent) scored “ready.” Jones reported similar snapshots for other early grades: first grade (49 students; approximately two-thirds at risk and one-third ready), second grade (49 students; about 86 percent at risk and 14 students, about 8 percent, ready) and third grade (counts reported as 64 students at risk and five ready). Jones cautioned that the screener differs from the district’s end-of-year Atlas summative assessments and other diagnostics, and said the school is standardizing which measures it uses so every K–3 student will have one comparable data point.

Jennifer Jamieson, a district instructional coach, presented the district’s Portrait of a Graduate initiative and said the framework defines shared competencies at each grade band. Jamieson said separate portraits were developed for pre-K, elementary, middle and high school but each level emphasizes the same core competencies: contribution to society, social skills, growth mindset, life-ready expectations and future planning. The portrait package will include grade-appropriate career-exploration activities so students receive exposure to career and technical opportunities throughout their school career. Jamieson said the district plans to develop rubrics at grade transitions (examples cited: 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th) to track student progress and will pilot teacher-leader roles to help implement the rubrics.

A fourth-grade student from Taylor Elementary who was invited to speak described the Portrait of a Graduate in first-person terms: “A portrait of a graduate means imagining the best version of myself, both now and in the future,” the student said, adding that it meant being “someone who works hard, is kind, and helps others” and being prepared for middle school and beyond.

Jones described the district’s K–3 assessment plan in more detail: kindergarteners will use DIBELS; first grade will use a QPA screener that breaks literacy into multiple pathways; second and third grades will use measures of nonsense-word fluency, oral reading fluency and an encoding/spelling assessment (QSA). Jones said the school has created data protocols so classroom teams can track growth and intervene with more consistent measures.

District staff said the Portrait of a Graduate materials (flyers and shirts) are being distributed to schools now and that the district aims to move from design to classroom implementation in the next school year.

Speakers quoted in this article came from presentations on the meeting agenda and publicized school reports.