District presents SEL dashboard, highlights gains and gaps in student wellbeing

A district staff representative demonstrated a new social‑emotional learning (SEL) dashboard to the Durango School District No. 9‑R board on Nov. 11, showing an SEL composite of 85% this fall against an 80% goal and pockets of improvement for specific student groups.

"Our goal is 80% on the SEL composite, and we had 85% this fall," the presenter said while walking the board through disaggregated results. The staff member noted the district uses a double‑informant model (student self‑report plus advisor observation) for grades three through 12 and a teacher‑only informant for K–2. The district is discussing whether to add a parent data point; staff said the measure is anonymous and intended to elicit honest student responses.

The presenter said American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic student groups showed year‑over‑year improvements and that students eligible for free or reduced‑price lunch were “just shy” of the 80% goal at 78%. She also reported a 4‑percent improvement from last fall for students with disabilities, while cautioning that some students with severe disabilities are excluded from the screeners because items are not appropriate.

District staff described MTSS (multi‑tiered systems of support) alignment work and said the district is partnering with Children’s Hospital under a rural health grant to consult on complex cases; hospital clinicians provided feedback to principals and participate on a weekly behavioral health team to review higher‑need students.

The board did not act on the dashboard; staff said they will continue to refine metrics and consider expanding who completes the instrument.