PPS winter MAP and iReady: modest gains, persistent racial and multilingual gaps

District presenters opened a data dive on PPS’s winter MAP and iReady assessments, framing the presentation in a "what, so what, now what" structure and urging the board to use the results for targeted action planning.

"Predictable and unacceptable gaps by race and ethnicity are still present," the presentations noted. Staff said some middle‑grade math and reading measures showed gains, while elementary grade bands were mixed and, in some cases, slightly down. Presenters highlighted low performance among multilingual learners and said ongoing analysis is needed to determine root causes and shape supports.

Board members asked whether small percentage changes (for example, 0.3–0.9 points) should be interpreted as meaningful. District staff explained that because these assessments capture a very large share of students ("well over 90 to 100%" in some grades), differences can reflect underlying student composition or instructional changes; they recommended triangulating MAP/iReady with curriculum‑embedded and formative measures before taking major programmatic action.

Staff described current and planned supports: school‑level intervention blocks ("what I need" blocks), academic interventionists targeted to schools where a share of students fall below thresholds, MTSS systems, high‑impact tutoring, and a three‑year science‑of‑reading professional learning sequence being delivered to cohorts of schools (20 schools per year). Presenters said work remains to aggregate curriculum‑embedded data districtwide and to analyze the specific effects of the science‑of‑reading cohort.

Board members pressed for more granular follow‑up items: (1) whether the district can produce disaggregated trend lines comparing curriculum‑embedded, norm‑referenced (MAP/iReady) and state assessments (OSAS); (2) analyses of whether the science‑of‑reading professional learning is moving local scores where implemented; and (3) operational plans for how intervention staffing is allocated to non‑Title I schools with underserved students.

What happens next: staff said they will continue unpacking the data, return with growth analyses in winter and with additional districtwide aggregation tools for curriculum‑embedded assessments as participation improves.

Ending note: presenters framed the data as a diagnostic layer within a broader balanced assessment system and committed to follow‑up materials that triangulate MAP/iReady results with classroom assessments and intervention outcomes.