Greeley School District 6 brings in WestEd to probe why DIBELS growth hasn’t translated to third‑grade CMAS gains

Greeley School District No. 6 invited WestEd into classrooms this week to investigate a puzzling gap between strong early‑reading growth and third‑grade state test results.

At a board work session, district leaders said mid‑year DIBELS assessments show the highest growth the district has seen since the COVID years, but CMAS results for third‑grade English language arts remain below state averages — about 24 percent of District 6 students scored at proficient or advanced on the third‑grade CMAS compared with roughly 42 percent statewide. Director of Elementary Instruction Jenny Jensen described DIBELS as a cohort‑based growth measure administered three times a year and said it shows notable progress: “we owe it to all of the students in our district to be readers by the time they leave third grade so that they can achieve all of the things that we've been talking about after third grade in their education.”

Superintendent Dr. Pilch said the district adopted a new literacy curriculum three years ago and has seen DIBELS gains, but the CMAS and DIBELS instruments measure different constructs. “This test is not testing literacy,” Pilch said of CMAS, and he cautioned that CMAS assesses broader third‑grade standards, not only decoding and phonics skills. Pilch added that the district also sees parallel results on NWEA MAPs, a nationally normed assessment, which supports the conclusion that the performance gap is real and not solely an artifact of a single measure.

To identify system‑level barriers, the district re‑engaged WestEd, which previously supported its multilingual‑learner work. WestEd’s team of literacy, special education and data experts observed classrooms at six schools in December and is conducting a second, more intensive round of observations this week while a separate WestEd research team analyzes building‑ and grade‑level data. WestEd will convene an exit meeting with a small district team later this week and is expected to deliver findings and recommendations in April–May; Pilch said some recommendations could be implemented in the fall.

Pilch and staff emphasized that the district’s strategy combines local curriculum implementation with external review. He noted the district’s increases for multilingual learners — for example, identification for gifted and talented rose from 41 students in 2017 to 248 today, and participation in AP and IB courses has expanded — as evidence that targeted system work can produce large changes. Still, Pilch said, “we're still only seeing 24 percent of our students achieving at grade level in third grade on that English language arts test,” and WestEd’s audit is intended to reveal which barriers district leaders can remove to better support teachers and school leaders.

Board members pressed on root causes, asking whether the large DIBELS growth largely reflects students starting further behind (pre‑K access, pandemic impacts, family conditions or screen time). Pilch said kindergarten cohorts born during COVID are a likely factor and reiterated that the district is expanding preschool capacity and encouraging enrollment in district pre‑K programs.

District staff stressed that WestEd’s process is collaborative: teachers, instructional coaches, administrators, parents and students are part of the observations and follow‑up, and WestEd’s recommendations are intended to produce actionable next steps rather than a top‑down mandate. The board did not take formal action; next steps are receipt of WestEd’s analysis and the district’s decision about which recommendations to adopt.

The district’s immediate timeline: intensive observations this week, an exit meeting with the district team on Friday, and a set of findings and recommended next steps from WestEd in April–May. The board said it expects to review those recommendations and consider implementation ahead of the next school year.