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Eau Claire board approves R2 monitoring report after presentation showing district-wide gains
Summary
The Eau Claire Area School Board unanimously approved its R2 academic performance monitoring report following a presentation from Executive Director Van Fleet that highlighted increases on ACT indicators, subgroup gains and caution about state cut-score changes that limit year-to-year comparisons.
Executive Director Van Fleet and district staff presented the Eau Claire Area School District—s R2 academic performance monitoring report and the board voted unanimously to approve it.
Van Fleet framed the presentation as evidence that long-term system changes are starting to produce measurable gains. "We're starting to make some movement here and some real positive movement," Van Fleet said, noting progress across multiple grades and subject areas. The presentation highlighted specific subgroup improvements, including gains for students who are Asian, Black, Hispanic, students with disabilities, English learners and economically disadvantaged students.
Assistant director (identified in the presentation as Mandy) walked the board through report changes and key data points. She said the district added additional demographic breakdowns and standardized the rules for determining "reasonable progress" across monitoring reports. Mandy also explained a recent state assessment change: the Wisconsin DPI updated cut scores for the Forward exam and related Forward ACT/preACT performance levels, then applied a one-year scale adjustment to hold comparability. "Because DPI updated the cut scores, we can't compare Forward year-to-year in the usual way," she said, urging caution when interpreting the gold-bar indicator on the district charts.
Selected data noted in the presentation included an overall 8.5% increase on the ACT ELA indicator, a 10.9% increase on ACT math, a 13.8% increase in ACT science, and subgroup advances such as an increase in the ELA achievement score for students identified as Black or African American (reported in the presentation as 40.7 to 49.0) and growth in students completing two or more fine arts/CTE/world-language courses (reported as 71.5% to 88.7%). The district also reported a 5.0 percentage-point increase in students judged "college ready" and a 2.4 point increase in those judged "career ready." The presentation described the achievement score as a three-year weighted average that emphasizes more recent data.
Board members pressed staff on comparability and detail. One board member said it was "hard to use the Forward data and be like, 'whoa'" because the cut-score changes make historical comparisons difficult. Board members and student representatives also requested more intersectional reporting (for example, Hispanic females, male subgroups) and suggested future reporting include CTE concentrator data (two consecutive courses) to better connect course completion to college-and-career readiness.
Staff said the improvements reflect a combination of aligned curriculum work, professional learning for staff, and investment supported by passage of the district referendum. They emphasized continued focus on universal instruction so fewer students need intensive tiered supports.
The board moved to approve R2 as presented and approved the motion unanimously. The board's discussion closed with appreciation for the work of principals, teachers and district leaders and a request that staff return with additional intersectional and concentrator data in future monitoring cycles.
The board recorded no amendments to the report and set no additional formal directions beyond the requests for further detail in future reports.
