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District presents fall FastBridge results; English-learner enrollment rises to 156, CBM fluency flagged for improvement
Summary
Directors presented fall FastBridge screening results and district subgroup trends: English learner enrollment increased from 141 to 156 since September, some subgroup gaps are narrowing while CBM (reading fluency) remains an area for targeted intervention.
District leaders reviewed fall universal-screener data and described action steps to support students who need additional instruction. Amanda Mazurkiewicz, director of student services, and directors Matt Stepniewski (elementary) and Kelly Kwiatkowski (secondary) walked the board through FastBridge results, subgroup performance and planned interventions.
Mazurkiewicz framed FastBridge as one of multiple measures the district uses to inform instruction and noted the district’s goal to graduate students "college and career ready." She said the district’s English-learner population rose from 141 in September to 156 at the time of the meeting, with 103 ELs in elementary buildings and 53 in secondary buildings; administrators said an increase of 15 EL students in a month-and-a-half has classroom and resource implications.
Stepniewski reviewed elementary findings, noting that FastBridge historically has been used three times per year and that Act 20 requires the district to use AIMSweb Plus for K–3 screening beginning this winter. He described subgroup trends showing growth among students with disabilities and narrowing achievement gaps in some areas, while identifying CBM (curriculum-based measurement) reading fluency as a particular area for improvement. Action steps include weekly progress monitoring for students of concern, tiered small-group instruction, additional EL coaches and new personal reading plans for K–3 students at or below the 20th percentile.
Kwiatkowski summarized secondary results, reporting aReading at roughly 74% at benchmark for seventh graders and noting strengths in automaticity and math. She said subgroup achievement is increasing overall but singled out students with disabilities and EL students as areas needing continued focus. Board members asked about small sample sizes for certain grade-subgroup combinations; presenters acknowledged that some grade-level counts are small and offered to provide the underlying spreadsheets with exact counts.
Next steps: The district will continue mixed use of FastBridge and AIMSweb Plus, analyze subgroup trends, expand interventions and provide the board with requested spreadsheet detail on subgroup counts.
