Kennewick board presses district on low elementary math proficiency as midyear data are reviewed
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Summary
At a Kennewick School District board meeting, Miss Singler presented midyear STAR and Smarter Balanced indicators showing mixed growth; a board member warned more than half of second graders are not proficient in math and asked for a targeted K–2 plan.
Miss Singler presented a midyear academic update to the Kennewick School District board, reviewing STAR reading and math growth, dual-language progress and high-school on-track indicators.
"This is students making typical growth," Miss Singler said while summarizing reading and math trends and the district's content-and-language allocation model for dual-language students. She said the district measures English and Spanish performance for dual-language learners and tracks credit accumulation and course-passing rates at the secondary level.
A board member pressed the district on math proficiency at early grades, saying, "by second grade we've already lost half of them" and expressing concern that by eighth grade only about a quarter of students are proficient. Miss Singler acknowledged the concern and described targeted steps the district is taking, including clearer alignment to Smarter Balanced standards, use of professional learning communities, multi-tiered systems of support and external program reviews for early literacy.
The presentation included on-track and passing indicators for secondary students; Miss Singler said, for example, that roughly three in four ninth-graders were passing all classes at the end of first semester. She said the district is tracking movement between performance levels (for example, level 1 to level 2) and that, systemwide, the district has seen more movement at lower levels than movement from high to highest levels.
Board members asked for more specificity about what will be done in kindergarten through second grade. One board member requested a concrete plan for K–2 math interventions and extension strategies for students who have already reached proficiency. The district committed to continued work on goal-setting, tighter school improvement plans and additional analyses of skill progression and interventions.
The board did not take an action on the academic presentation; members requested a follow-up that provides a clearer, K–2-focused plan and timelines for expected interventions.
