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Souderton presenters highlight strong fall baseline results and engagement metrics
Summary
At a Nov. 12 committee meeting, district administrators presented fall baseline assessment results showing most students starting the year in the average-to-high-average range and reported high participation in extracurriculars and strong attendance.
Dr. Kenny Riley, the district’s data presenter, told the board at the Nov. 12 committee meeting that fall baseline testing shows the district starting the year with generally strong results and high engagement. "95.62% daily attendance," Riley said, noting the figure is about a half percentage point above the same time last year. He emphasized that the fall returns are baseline achievement measures, not growth data.
Riley framed the year’s work with a "tree and puzzle" theme to stress that learning is rooted in well‑being and relationships and that assessment results represent only pieces of a larger picture. He described the district’s multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) and a transition from Performance Matters to a new analytics-and-insights dashboard that administrators can use to identify where interventions are needed.
Presenters gave level-by-level fall snapshots: overall K–8 averages in the MAP Growth assessments were described in the high‑average range (examples cited: roughly 80% in math and 78% in reading for baseline categories), primary foundational skills for kindergarten included 64% phonological awareness and 56% phonics/word recognition, and intermediate and middle grades showed year‑to‑date starting points that speakers said were up compared with the prior baseline year (examples given: intermediate reading up ~4% and math up ~12%; middle school reading up ~6% and math up ~9%). Riley underscored that charted cohort medians reflect median scores, not individual student distributions.
The presentation also highlighted engagement measures as part of the "whole child" approach: 74% of fourth‑ and fifth‑graders were reported learning an instrument; the high school lists 87 active clubs and more than 1,300 students in at least one club; more than 1,300 attended homecoming events, and several leadership and extracurricular trips were listed.
The administration said principals will return in March with building-level fall‑to‑winter updates showing growth and progress on actionable goals.
The presentation closed with the administration reiterating that the fall data provide a baseline to guide instruction, interventions and supports, and that more detailed growth information will be available after winter testing.
