Elementary benchmarks show gains; academy dashboard highlights attendance improvement and ongoing math concerns

Elementary co‑principals presented STAR benchmark results showing decreases in the number of students in the 'urgent intervention' category and growth in 'on watch' and 'at/above' bands across multiple grades after targeted testing and instructional changes.

Presenters said they reduced testing class sizes during assessments, provided scratch paper and extra time for math problems, increased positive reinforcement, and implemented regular data meetings and interventions (including an hour of intervention multiple days per week). The elementary reported specific reductions (for example, a 35% drop in urgent‑intervention counts for TK counting to 30 and other grade‑level improvements) and described strategies to sustain growth.

Academy leadership reviewed the combined academy dashboard (data from three sites), noting steady improvement in chronic absenteeism compared with pandemic peaks and a 98.4% graduation rate for students within four or five years. However, leaders also called out declines in English language arts (down 13.7 points) and ongoing math performance issues, citing teacher turnover and students arriving underprepared as contributing factors. To address math, the academy has reallocated intervention staffing (including converting an intervention teacher to focus on math at the elementary level), engaged Solution Tree consultants and added middle‑ and high‑school instructional coaches.

Board members asked about grade‑level trends and transitions; leadership said tracking diagonally by cohorts would clarify whether gaps begin in early grades and noted targeted plans for students who lag at fifth grade before middle school.

Next steps: leadership will provide multi‑year trend graphs at board request and return with more detailed cohort tracking and intervention results.