East Haven district outlines 6–12 strategy: dashboards, high‑impact reading strategies and curriculum pilots
Summary
At an academic workshop, East Haven leaders reviewed I‑Ready projections, demonstrated Panorama intervention dashboards, described Naviance rollout and reported pilots of I‑Ready math and Amplify Science aimed at boosting long‑term proficiency and college/career planning.
At a district academic workshop held before the regular Board of Education meeting, East Haven School District leaders on Monday reviewed 6–12 diagnostic data and the action steps they say will improve middle and high‑school outcomes.
"When students do meet those projected, stretch growth marks for 2 years in a row, we can see that those numbers are exponentially higher," assistant superintendent Lisa Diaz said in a presentation that opened the session. Diaz walked the board and audience through I‑Ready projections mapped to Smarter Balanced benchmarks and said the district must prioritize "stretch growth" to close persistent gaps.
The presentation showed low baseline proficiency in some cohorts if no further growth occurs — for example, staff presented a math projection that, without growth, would yield roughly 12% proficiency for current sixth graders. Reading projections for 2025–26 under typical growth were higher (staff cited approximately 18% in sixth grade, 36% in seventh and 40% in eighth under typical growth), but administrators emphasized that students who meet stretch‑growth targets for multiple years are far more likely to reach mid‑or‑above grade level performance.
Officials demonstrated Panorama dashboards the district is using for near‑daily monitoring of academic performance, attendance, behavior and self‑reported SEL measures. Diaz and building leaders said the dashboards allow teams to identify students who need specific interventions and to monitor the effectiveness of selected strategies without relying on disparate spreadsheets.
District staff also outlined a Naviance rollout intended to build student portfolios tied to career pathways; the family access component is planned "by the holiday break," Diaz said. The presentation noted 368 AP and dual‑credit enrollments so far this year, compared with about 380 last year, and administrators said they are adding courses aligned to students’ indicated career and college interests.
Presenters described classroom practices the district is scaling, including reciprocal teaching and paired reading, which leadership cited as high‑impact strategies based on meta‑analytic research. JMS Principal Darcy Joyon said teacher walk‑throughs and collegial visits are part of a multi‑step professional development plan to embed those routines and improve retention of learning between school years.
On curriculum, the district described a middle‑grade pilot of the I‑Ready math materials for sixth grade and a pilot of the Amplify Science curriculum at the middle school level. "The goal is that science teachers will demonstrate high‑fidelity implementation of the Amplify Science curriculum, ensuring all students consistently engage with the three dimensions of science through phenomenon‑driven inquiry," assistant principal Nate Testro said, describing units that ask students to act as novice scientists rather than memorize discrete facts.
District leaders said next steps include continued program piloting, monitoring progress via Panorama and scaling professional development (including a planned visit by consultant Lori Speranzo) to support math discourse and other tier‑1 instructional practices.
The workshop concluded with a summary from the superintendent, who praised the emphasis on data‑driven interventions and the focus on sustaining learning through year‑to‑year instructional strategies. Administrators said they will report back to the board as pilots and monitoring yield measurable outcomes.
