Committee hears informational briefing on reading-success policy required by Missouri law

The governance committee received an informational briefing on Nov. 6 about a district reading-success policy required by Missouri statute. Chief of Schools Dr. Dino said the policy and accompanying administrative procedures formalize work the district already does: universal screening for reading indicators, parent notification, curriculum-based measures (CBMs) for follow-up diagnostic information and development of individualized reading-success plans.

Dr. Dino said the district uses DESE-approved screeners and reported that school staff received training after state changes to assessment requirements. He emphasized that screeners are not diagnostic: a screener flags students for further review and CBMs and teacher observations are used to determine needed remediation. The proposed policy also addresses remediation activities and the districts responsibility to define competencies that may be conditions of promotion; Dr. Dino said the district must consider research on retention and remediation to determine appropriate promotion criteria.

Committee members asked whether teachers sometimes rescored or hand-scored screeners when the automated result did not match classroom knowledge; Dr. Dino said teachers use CBMs and multiple measures and that no single screener determines a reading-success plan or special-education referral.

No committee action was requested; staff will return with a policy-and-procedure package for future committee consideration and formal board adoption as required by state law.

Provenance: Reading-policy briefing appears in the meeting transcript beginning at 00:54:55.