District cohort analysis shows improved reading and math proficiency for grades 42D8
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Summary
Administrators presented longitudinal cohort data for grades 42D8 showing steady growth in reading and math proficiency for students who have been continuously enrolled; the board asked for subgroup breakdowns and will task grade-level teams with targeted interventions.
Administrators presented cohort-based STAR assessment results for grades 42D8, showing that the cohort currently in eighth grade improved in reading proficiency between fifth and eighth grades and that math proficiency follows a similar pattern with a common dip at the fifth-to-sixth-grade transition.
Deb summarized the district27s approach: use norm-referenced STAR screeners for grades 42D8, focus on cohorts of students who remained continuously enrolled (a sample of 121 students who took the test each year), and track movement among categories (well below, approaching, proficient). "We're closing that gap and bumping those kids higher for their reading data," she said, noting that the district27s goal is to shift students from "approaching" to "proficient" and to reduce the lowest-performing group.
Trustees discussed subgroup analysis (English learners, special education, transient students), the need to compare local trends to other districts using STAR where possible, and next steps: grade-level teams will perform deeper subgroup and cohort analyses and propose interventions at the school level. Staff said winter benchmarking and next-month growth measures will provide the first intra-year comparison.
The presentation prompted trustees to ask for deeper breakdowns by program (for example, dual-language participation) and to track whether the fifth-to-sixth-grade dip is a local pattern or consistent statewide; staff flagged that Leanne Gomez is conducting doctoral research on the fifth-to-sixth grade transition for English learners and could be a resource.