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Taylor ISD presents i-Ready beginning-of-year screener results; math lags, reading shows gains
Summary
District staff presented initial i-Ready universal screener results for 2025–26, showing higher beginning-of-year reading metrics and lower math performance across grade bands; district will collect middle-of-year data after the holiday break and expects to monitor personalized learning paths.
Taylor Independent School District staff presented the district's beginning-of-year i-Ready universal screener results during the Oct. 20 board meeting and recommended i-Ready as the district's official universal screener to comply with HB 2.
The presenter said the district will continue using Circle for pre-K and i-Ready for kindergarten through eighth grade. For pre-K Circle data the presenter reported 81% of pre-K students were on track in mathematics, 41% in phonological awareness and 47% in rapid vocabulary. For K–8 i-Ready beginning-of-year results, the presenter summarized the three-tier reporting categories (Approaches, Meets, Masters) and said reading (RLA) shows notable gains while math performance lags, mirroring statewide and national trends.
Examples cited by the presenter included kindergarten RLA with roughly 51% Approaches and 8% Meets, while kindergarten math showed 21% Approaches and 9% Meets. At elementary campuses the presenter pointed to strong RLA results at NPE (about 70% Approaches, 24% Meets, 8% Masters) and MSE (about 64% Approaches, 11% Meets, 4% Masters). At middle school the presenter reported RLA with higher percentages in Approaches/Meets/Masters than math (e.g., middle-school RLA 73% Approaches, 41% Meets, 18% Masters; math ~60% Approaches and 12% Meets).
The presenter emphasized that i-Ready creates individualized learning paths and includes instructional stop-gates that require teacher intervention when students struggle. The district expects to collect and return middle-of-year i-Ready data after the holiday break for comparison and to measure growth; staff said they monitor the data frequently and intervene during the year rather than waiting until midpoint reporting.
Board discussion focused on timing; a trustee asked whether the middle-of-year administration would occur before or after the holiday break, and staff replied the district will receive the middle-of-year data after the break. The board subsequently approved i-Ready as the district's universal screener as part of the consent agenda.
The presenter said the district will use i-Ready results to measure "1 plus" growth goals and invited trustees to visit campuses and celebrate student progress at planned events.
