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Plainview ISD emphasizes Science of Reading, reports modest gains and flags AI scoring on state test
Summary
Plainview ISD trustees heard a district literacy plan centered on the Science of Reading, a reinstated DRA benchmark, and a state assessment report showing modest gains; administrators raised concerns that new AI-assisted scoring on the STAR/STA R2 assessment may have reduced reported proficiency and noted ongoing litigation with the state.
Plainview ISD officials on Monday presented a districtwide literacy strategy that blends the Science of Reading with a comprehensive literacy approach and reinstates the DRA benchmark test, and reported modest year‑to‑year gains on several state assessments while flagging concerns about automated scoring on a new state test.
Paulina Gonzalez Lisonbee, the district’s elementary literacy coordinator, told the board the district is emphasizing the five pillars of reading — phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension — and using guided reading, read‑alouds and differentiated instruction to build students’ decoding and comprehension skills. "Science of Reading is based on extensive research and evidence from various disciplines like Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, and Education," she said, and noted teachers across the district have begun science‑of‑reading training.
Gonzalez said the district has reinstated DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) testing so students and teachers have clear, level‑based goals. She described classroom practices — read‑alouds, guided reading tables and word work — and highlighted the district’s bilingual instruction: North Elementary has 12 dual classrooms and the district is piloting a third‑grade 50/50 Spanish‑English class.
On assessment results, district staff presented STAR/STA R2, EOC, STARALT and TELPAS output. The presenter reported increases in several areas: third‑ and fourth‑grade RLA scores each rose by about 4 percentage points, seventh grade RLA rose 2 points, Algebra I EOC approaches rose by 10 points and biology approaches rose by 6 points. The district also reported a consistent CCMR figure near the low‑80s and that 62% of 2023 seniors received TSI/CCMR credit.
Board members and staff discussed a change in how some constructed responses are scored on the newer STAR2 contract: an automated scoring engine grades short and extended constructed responses with a minimum of 25% of responses routed to human scorers. One board member said the district observed a composite drop (from the mid‑30s to low‑30s in a cited example) after the AI grading adjustments and suggested human graders may have awarded more credit. "We believe that without the AI, that 31 is much higher," a board speaker said during discussion.
District leaders stressed that, even as the board continues litigation against state testing changes, teachers are creating local formative assessments and pacing guides to align instruction with standards and to provide intervention data. The presentation emphasized ongoing teacher professional learning communities and progress‑monitoring across campuses as the district balances state requirements with classroom practice.
The next procedural step for the district is continued classroom implementation of the literacy model and ongoing review of local assessment results; staff indicated they will report back in future board meetings with progress updates and additional data.
