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Cedar Springs board hears beginning‑of‑year academic review; district to emphasize early grades
Summary
Continuous improvement coordinator Kristen Elbate told the school board on Oct. 27 that beginning‑of‑year I‑Ready scale‑score averages are largely flat in recent years and that the district will prioritize early‑grade interventions and system alignment to raise trajectories.
KRISTEN ELBATE, the district’s continuous improvement coordinator, told the Cedar Springs Public Schools board on Oct. 27 that the district is reframing how it reports benchmark results to make year‑to‑year comparisons more consistent.
“Eliminate the confusion of proficiency bands and look at scale scores so we have ‘raw and real’ numbers that don’t change by season,” Elbate said, explaining the shift in emphasis from proficiency buckets to I‑Ready scale scores.
The presentation explained that I‑Ready is a criterion‑referenced benchmark aligned to state standards; a student’s score is measured against grade‑level expectations rather than peers. Using scale scores, Elbate said, avoids the misleading impression that students “lost” months over the summer when grade bands shift with promotion.
The data overview showed that beginning‑of‑year scale‑score averages have been relatively flat across recent years. Elbate said kindergarten and early elementary grades show the greatest potential year‑to‑year gain, so the district will prioritize interventions for early grades and strengthen alignment from district goals to building plans and PLC (professional learning community) focus areas.
Elbate also described pilot work at the high school to use IXL as a high‑school benchmark (about 50% participation so far) to give more frequent, actionable data beyond the spring‑only PSAT/SAT window.
Board members asked about lingering COVID effects, summer‑slide magnitude and whether the new summer reading program affected results. Elbate said cohort comparisons suggest only modest summer decline overall and that more robust, longitudinal analysis is possible when additional attendance and graduation data are published by the state and inserted into the district’s comprehensive needs assessment.
District officials said the full updated comprehensive needs assessment and slide deck are in the board packet for further review.
For now, the district’s next steps are to continue building alignment between district goals and building/PLC targets, collect additional formative and behavior data through the year, and expand benchmarking at the high‑school level.
