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District presents beginning‑of‑year assessment data; board questions testing use and implementation timelines
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Holly Putnam Jackson presented Ready Reading/Ready Math and new Kansas state assessment results; board members asked about cohort trend data, implementation timelines (4–7 years for major changes), motivational factors for high school assessments, and next steps for coaching and targeted interventions.
Dr. Holly Putnam Jackson, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, delivered a detailed beginning‑of‑year data and state assessment report, walking trustees through results from the Ready Reading and Ready Math universal screeners and the newly re‑normed Kansas state assessment.
Jackson said the district transitioned to Ready Reading this year (replacing DIBELS) and noted that third grade districtwide showed 57% in the state assessment’s top two levels compared with 53% statewide. She described middle and high school trends by grade and highlighted science gains—fifth grade at 51% proficient vs. the state’s 46%—and said eighth‑grade students in a multi‑year Carnegie implementation were 11 percentage points higher than the state in top tiers.
Board members pressed Jackson on several themes: availability of longitudinal (cohort) data for individual schools, whether the local screeners are reliable given student motivation at higher grades, and how soon staff should expect to see improvement from curriculum or program changes. Jackson said some changes are expected to take "anywhere from 4 to 7 years" depending on scale and referenced implementation science; she also described supports such as instructional coaching, reading labs, lab aids, and intervention pathways at the high school.
Trustees and staff discussed the balance between using local assessment skill data for targeted interventions and de‑emphasizing single screener scores for older students when triangulating performance for high‑school planning. Jackson said the district will continue to monitor multiple measures and build trend lines as assessment cohorts accumulate.
