Easton Area SD outlines literacy and math priorities after baseline assessment review

Anita Draper, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and her team presented a districtwide baseline of student assessment data Tuesday, telling the Easton Area School District board that proficiency fell after 2019 and that math remains the district’s largest academic challenge. The presentation reviewed multiple measures — Acadience (formerly DIBELS), STAR, and IXL — that the district will use to screen students, group interventions and measure growth.

Draper and the C&I team said the district’s immediate goal is to have 75% of students at or above benchmark this year, with an ultimate target of 80% by 2027. They reported wide variation by grade and subject: ELA proficiency across grades ranges roughly from 37% to 66%, while math proficiency ranges from about 34% to 46%, and some elementary grades showed single-digit declines compared with pre-2019 baselines.

The team described strategic actions already under way, including a principal academy and routine instructional rounds focused on classroom environment and student engagement; expansion of Acadience benchmarking through grade 5; use of STAR to measure growth at the middle and end of year; and daily brief practice with IXL for targeted skill work. For early reading, the district is rolling out Enhanced Core Reading Instruction (ECRI) at select schools and structured literacy professional development districtwide.

During board questions, a member flagged a discrepancy between the district’s presented percentages and figures on the PDE (state) spreadsheet. Mike Cook, director of teaching and learning, explained the difference: the state’s accountability figures exclude some students (for example, students who joined the district after Oct. 1 or certain placements) while the district’s eMetrix reports include every student who took the assessment. “For us, that student is our student,” he said, noting the choice to plan using all students tested rather than the smaller accountability cohort.

Draper said the district will return with midyear benchmarking results in February and indicated that building-level, grade-level breakdowns with student counts will be provided to board members in advance of that report. The C&I team emphasized that core instruction must improve alongside interventions: “We cannot intervene our way to student success,” a presenter said, stressing fidelity to approved curriculum maps while allowing principal-led conversations about supplemental resources.

The board expressed particular concern about the widening proficiency gap as students advance through grades and endorsed the district’s emphasis on early intervention, structured literacy and targeted math coaching as the path to narrow that gap. The C&I team said they will continue to monitor progress and refine interventions based on midyear and end-of-year data.