Scottsdale Unified presents assessment results; district cites IXL correlation with state tests
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Summary
District staff presented draft AASA and ACT-related results, described how IXL local assessments correlate to state outcomes and outlined use of dashboards to identify at-risk 'bubble' students; staff warned that state data are draft and final comparisons will be available later.
District leaders presented a data-focused study session describing the district’s assessment strategy and early results from local and state measures.
Dr. Bauchner summarized the district’s ‘wildly important goals’ on math, attendance and enrollment and said cohort data showed the largest math decline between fifth and sixth grades — “that large drop in math performance between fifth and sixth grades was the biggest impact on our cohort achievement overall in math last year,” he said. Dr. Bauchner described the district’s adoption of IXL (computer-adaptive assessments) as a primary tool for ongoing monitoring, explaining that IXL scale scores map to grade-and-month equivalence and that staff have modeled IXL thresholds against AASA outcomes.
Dr. Bauchner described correlation work performed by Dr. Simpson and others showing tipping points in IXL scores associated with higher probability of passing the AASA; the district intends to use probability modeling to identify students 'on track' and to target interventions. The presentation also noted that advanced-eighth-grade math students performed substantially better on AASA (staff cited an example where advanced eighth-grade students were roughly 96% proficient compared with ~33% for on-grade-level peers).
Board members questioned alignment, smoothing between grade levels and parent access to data. Leah Mitchell and other staff described district and vendor steps to align IXL to curriculum, provide ParentVUE visibility to families and support teacher PLCs in intervention planning. Staff emphasized the data cited are draft state files and that public comparisons to other districts will come later when state files are final.
The board discussed related high-school ACT practice tests administered through Horizon and lower participation among 11th graders; staff noted practice-test participation correlates with higher ACT averages but that practical and scheduling constraints affect uptake.
The session concluded with staff committing to provide additional calibration details (IXL-to-AASA mapping) and to continue using dashboards to identify students near proficiency thresholds for targeted intervention.
