Eastside and Madison principals report early-literacy strength and set 90% attendance goal districtwide at some schools

Eastside and Madison principals presented early-literacy diagnostics (DIBELS), SuccessMaker math goals and attendance strategies during the district data session.

At Eastside, intervention specialist Nicole Alt described classroom-level incentives for regular attendance (class rewards for 100% daily attendance, prize cards and teacher outreach) and said K–2 DIBELS measures show many students entering the year near benchmark in key phonemic-awareness areas. "Kids really think that's fine... giving them a prize on Friday when everybody's there for a 100% helps," Alt said.

Madison’s principal set a school goal of 90% regular attenders and previewed parent-facing communications for fall conferences (a calendar and a personalized attendance graph). Madison staff emphasized phonemic awareness and automaticity for K–1 students and a targeted core-review process at the grade level.

Why it matters: Early-literacy and early attendance patterns strongly predict later reading success and grade progression. Both schools emphasized family-facing communications and small-group interventions to increase practice time and automaticity in reading and math.

Supporting details: Eastside uses SuccessMaker and teachers monitor minutes and percent-correct as metrics; the district uses a target such as 60 minutes/week in some buildings. Madison said first-grade outcomes this year look strong for the cohort that had consistent early instruction last year.

Next steps: Schools will continue tracking minutes on adaptive math platforms, share examples of family-facing slides for clarity and report progress at the next data update.

Provenance: Eastside presentation began near 02:03:12 and Madison around 02:05:51 in the meeting.