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Chair presses district for specific plan after staff reports K–6 reading gains
Summary
After district staff reported improved K–6 composites — 61 percent at grade level and 78 percent demonstrating fluent reading — Chair Robert Stephenson demanded concrete, near‑term intervention steps focused on ninth‑grade and small‑group instruction and asked for an update at the committee's March meeting.
Robert Stephenson, chairman of the school committee, pressed district staff for immediate, specific steps to help students flagged by recent diagnostic data, saying the committee was not satisfied with general plans.
At a committee meeting, a district presenter reported that K–6 composite scores have improved, with 61 percent of students at grade level and 78 percent demonstrating fluent reading. The presenter said the district has seen “lots of math progress” but still sees foundational skill gaps for some students.
Stephenson questioned why proposed long‑term changes — including shifting some courses to a year‑long schedule that would not take effect until students reach 11th grade — would not help students now. He said, “These students deserve it,” and asked staff to return to the second school committee meeting in March with a written update describing what has been done and what will be done before the end of the school year.
Staff and committee members discussed specific intervention approaches, including data‑driven small‑group instruction and using I‑Ready diagnostic data to pull targeted groups for reteaching in subjects such as algebraic thinking. One staff member described the approach used at the elementary level — intensive, data‑informed instruction with coaching — and urged adapting that model for middle and high school grades.
Committee members identified ninth grade as a particular pressure point and urged immediate steps to provide interventions there. Staff said they have professional learning communities (PLCs) and a newly formed student response team that meet to determine next steps, and they reported weekly meetings with middle‑school teams. Members emphasized the need to make those PLCs more data‑focused and to give teachers practical guidance on translating diagnostic scores into classroom tasks.
The chair also raised parent engagement as a priority, asking staff to report how many parents of students identified as struggling have been notified and what outreach methods were used; staff said data are shared in parent meetings and portals but acknowledged portions of that outreach are optional. Stephenson asked staff to include parental notification data in the March update.
The committee did not adopt a formal new policy at the meeting; instead, members directed staff to deliver the requested update and to outline concrete near‑term actions — including timelines and resource needs — for implementing small‑group interventions and parent outreach.
