Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Student Assessment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District presents state testing gains; trustees discuss scaling successful school practices
Summary
Superintendent and academic leaders reported district testing results showing growth across many schools and highlighted successful practices at Ray, Lincoln, Newport Heights and Estancia; trustees asked how to scale the 'secret sauce' to other campuses.
Newport‑Mesa Unified School District leaders presented state assessment results to the board on Aug. 21, highlighting districtwide gains and several schools with multi‑year growth.
"We have over 8,600 students who were tested," said Dr. Sur during a high‑level overview of English language arts and mathematics results. Presenters credited focused professional development, intervention models and curriculum adoption for growth in targeted schools.
Why it matters: The presentation identified concrete programs and materials driving improvement — AVID at elementary levels, small‑group instruction and fidelity to core curriculum, plus new adoptions such as Illustrative Mathematics and Heggerty for early reading foundations.
Details: District presenters noted double‑digit gains at some campuses: Ray Elementary (17% growth over 3 years), Lincoln (+10%), Newport Heights (+7%), Sonora (+7%), Estancia High (8%–11% depending on measure) and Newport Harbor (double‑digit gains in ELA). Mathematics growth cited Ray (+14% over 3 years), Adams (+11%) and Estancia (+11%). Presenters emphasized principal‑led professional learning teams (PLTs), cross‑site sharing and a new K–12 math adoption to improve articulation between grade spans.
Trustee discussion: Trustees asked how successful practices will be scaled. Presenters described principal forums to highlight effective practices, "dine with data" sessions, planned articulation across K–12 and monitoring tools to track implementation fidelity.
Ending: Board members praised progress and asked staff to provide campus‑level data for parent communication and for continued one‑on‑one support at sites not meeting targets.
