Bethlehem Area SD reports midyear gains in reading and math, highlights K–1 reading focus
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Summary
District staff presented midyear benchmark results showing districtwide gains in reading and math since the new curriculum, highlighted first-grade oral reading fluency progress, and explained cohort-level reports and intervention pathways used to target students below benchmark.
Unidentified Speaker 6 presented the Bethlehem Area School District's midyear academic benchmark report, saying the district is "seeing positive growth," with notable gains in early-grade reading and three-year improvements in math where a new curriculum and coaching have been emphasized. The presentation condensed larger data files into a district-level snapshot and directed committee members to a fuller slide set in board docs for cohort-level detail.
The presentation emphasized oral reading fluency in first grade as a key predictor of later reading skills, noting several schools outperformed their prior-year end-of-year measures while some cohorts remain below benchmark. "Anywhere that's highlighted in that green color is 90% benchmark or above," Unidentified Speaker 6 said, pointing to classroom- and school-level score distributions. Staff said targeted interventions are yielding progress among students who started the year needing support, while some students categorized "well below" showed more persistent needs as they age.
Unidentified Speaker 1 summarized district math trends, saying the district has recorded multi-year gains after adopting the new math curriculum: "In a 3 year span, with the new curriculum and following that and coaching support, we are seeing that increase in student performance." He pointed to district MOI averages that rose substantially in the last three years and credited curriculum fidelity, coaching and grade-level supports.
Committee members asked for cohort-style longitudinal displays that follow students from kindergarten through upper elementary to better understand summer slide and student mobility effects; staff confirmed those longitudinal cohort reports are available in the longer board-doc attachments. The committee also discussed how pathway visualizations (the "rainbows" report) group students by quintile and highlight which students are on 'above typical' versus 'well below' progress pathways to help teachers set interventions.
The committee closed the discussion by thanking staff for the analysis and noting plans for principals and teachers to continue using the reports to guide instruction and interventions in the remainder of the school year.