District shows K–5 screening gains and school-level data tools; Truman Elementary highlights targeted 'win' time progress
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Summary
District assessment leads reported screening and interim-assessment results showing gains in literacy and math screening bands and described professional learning (LETRS, UFLI). Truman Elementary demonstrated building-level data tools and a 'win' time model that teachers say is producing notable fluency and comprehension gains.
Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Chris Gianotti told the Vancouver School District Board that the district is using a two-part approach: screeners (DIBELS/Lectura and MCAS Math) to identify risk and Smarter Balanced interim assessment blocks (IABs and FIABs) to measure standards-aligned rigor.
Gianotti said screeners help staff decide who needs core instruction versus targeted or intensive support and noted that midyear (MOY) benchmarks are intentionally more rigorous to trigger early intervention. She highlighted kindergarten gains — reductions in high-risk students and improvements in letter naming, decoding and word recognition — while cautioning that differences between end-of-year kindergarten measures and beginning-of-year first-grade expectations can make cohort comparisons appear worse even when students are not regressing.
On interim assessments, Gianotti reported that 870 third-graders participated in a focused interim assessment block on making and supporting literary inferences, with 52% meeting near-or-above standard on that focused measure. For math, screening via MClass/MCAS showed district-level reductions in risk and domain trends (e.g., regrouping in grade 3, fractions in grade 4); Gianotti emphasized platforms’ value in revealing student thinking and common errors for targeted reteaching.
Staff also described professional learning: UFLI adoption for K–2 foundational routines, LETRS participation (98 participants across K–12), and grant-funded advanced training for language comprehension. Gianotti said the district increased K–2 resources and purchased materials for third-grade phonics and multisyllabic-word work.
Truman Elementary principal Lee Gunter and teachers described how local coherence and schedule changes produced measurable gains. Truman renamed intervention time to "win time" (What Everybody Needs) for both literacy and math, groups students by specific needs (not just proficiency), uses specialists as co-teachers in classrooms, and maintains a centralized, teacher-built spreadsheet that auto-calculates proficiency and progress metrics. Teachers presented examples showing win-group fluency gains (one group averaged +42 words correct per minute) and item-level analyses that support PLC decisions.
The session included short student video clips in which fourth-graders described reading practice routines and large DIBELS score improvements (examples cited in the presentation included a 100-point increase and moves from 'red' to 'green' risk bands).
Board members asked for cohort-level cohort tracking and for staff to show how screener and SBA reporting will be aligned in fall reporting; staff committed to provide fuller disaggregations and to share supplemental data products used at building PLCs.
Next steps: staff will provide requested cohort-level disaggregations and further materials demonstrating the predictive relationships (where available) between interim blocks and Smarter Balanced outcomes, and will share examples of building-level data tools for other schools to adopt.
