District leaders urge caution on using third'grade ELA metric for dual'language students
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Superintendent Dr. West said district third'grade English ELA proficiency was 25% last year but cautioned that many multilingual students require several years to develop academic English, and the district'level picture improves across cohorts by high school.
Forest Grove School District leaders told the board on Oct. 28 that state assessments and local benchmark data show mixed early'year results and that the district's sizable multilingual population complicates interpretation of single'grade proficiency metrics.
"Our third graders, only 25% of them assess proficient," Superintendent Dr. West said of last year's English language arts (ELA) results. She and teaching-and-learning staff stressed that many students receive instruction in both English and Spanish and that academic English proficiency for students learning in two languages commonly develops over five to seven years.
Presenters displayed cohort charts that track the same students from first grade through fourth grade and beyond. In the district's example, a cohort showed steady increases in local benchmark scores year over year; district leaders noted that the students who were not proficient in third grade often surpassed state averages by 11th grade. "We see that pay off by the time they're in high school," Dr. West said.
Board members and staff discussed the state's technical advisory committee drafting accountability measures for use statewide. Several directors urged colleagues to take the district's evidence to legislators and advisory groups and to emphasize the longitudinal perspective—"practice our messaging," a board member said—because a single third'grade metric can understate growth in dual'language contexts.
Teaching-and-learning staff also presented disaggregated results by race/ethnicity, English'learner status and students with disabilities. The district's internal benchmark (multi'cycle screeners and MAP data) showed cohort-level improvements over time, with notable year'to'year gains in cohorts exposed to a newly adopted literacy curriculum (Amplify) introduced during the cohort's early grades.
District staff said they will continue reporting both Spanish language arts and English ELA side by side, monitor cohort trajectories, and provide board members with tools and talking points for state-level advocacy and technical'advisory committee feedback.