Haskell School Board hears progress-monitoring report showing reading gains as district adopts stricter statistical standard

Superintendent Whitney told the Haskell School Board the district recorded statistically significant reading gains in 2024–25 and that the district has moved to a stricter statistical-significance standard for judging progress.

The report, presented during a study session, focused on the board’s reading goal and the district’s Board Progress Monitoring Reports. Whitney said the percentage of third graders meeting the STAAR standard increased by "almost 6%" year over year from 2024 to 2025, and that the district is seeing multi-year improvement with a four‑year high in 2025. "We are actually holding ourselves to a higher standard than what the board approved in this particular report," Whitney said, describing the district’s decision to apply industry-standard statistical tests rather than the lower 'standard error' threshold the board initially discussed.

Why it matters: board members have required measurable growth tied to the district’s strategic plan and the superintendent evaluation. The district says adopting a statistical-significance test reduces the risk of treating random year‑to‑year fluctuations as real progress, but staff acknowledged it is a more aggressive bar and may undercount…