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District performance briefing: presenter cites multi-year declines; superintendent team emphasizes state assessments
Summary
A presenter cited long-term negative growth and NAEP figures—saying 80% of fourth-graders tested below basic—while district leaders urged focus on state assessments and noted improvements in some NAEP measures.
An unidentified presenter addressed the board about long-term academic performance, citing data back to 02/2009 and asserting large negative shifts in standard-deviation metrics and a claim that “80 percent of our students are testing at a below basic rate” on fourth-grade NAEP.
The presenter argued the district has regressed and urged policy changes, including considering pay-for-success models under ESSA to tie payments to minimum growth expectations for vendors and providers.
Dr. Beasley responded on behalf of district leadership, saying NAEP provides only a "small insight" into performance because it samples students (the transcript notes roughly 30% of DPSCD students take NAEP) and is taken only in grades 4 and 8. Beasley said state assessments—taken by more than 95% of students—are a more reliable basis for measuring system-wide performance and noted mixed NAEP results (e.g., modest declines and improvements across grade/subject pairings) that, in his view, are consistent with trends in other large urban districts. He said state assessment results were still embargoed for the most recent year but that district results show improvement since the pandemic and are narrowing gaps with the state.
The public record does not include the full state-assessment numbers or embargoed data; the presenter’s remarks rely on summary statistics presented at the meeting.
