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Londonderry curriculum leaders report broad winter gains in reading and math
Summary
Curriculum coordinators told the School Board that K–8 winter benchmarks and i-Ready diagnostics show notable gains districtwide, with kindergarten and elementary grades reporting high proficiency and strong fall-to-winter growth; the board discussed full-day kindergarten and next steps for math at the high school level.
Londonderry — Curriculum coordinators presented the school district’s winter assessment results to the Londonderry School Board on March 26, reporting gains across multiple grade levels and assessment tools.
Nicole Treadway, Megan Nason and Dr. Kim Lumley Susi told the board that elementary students posted strong winter benchmark results and fall-to-winter growth on i-Ready diagnostics and Acadience/Dibels screeners. The presenters said kindergarten math indicators showed 83% meeting benchmarks for number identification, 85% for counting objects and 91% for comparing numbers, and that kindergarten literacy markers were similarly strong: 86% met letter-identification benchmarks and 70% were at or above the Acadience reading composite midyear.
The coordinators said that across grades 1–5 the district saw significant fall-to-winter math growth, with some individual grade cohorts reporting gains in the 30–49% range from fall to winter. They described three growth measures—typical growth (yearly expectation), stretch growth (an ambitious two-placement jump) and improved placement (movement from below grade to closer to grade-level)—and emphasized that many students had already reached typical or improved placement by the winter benchmark.
At the middle-school level, presenters reported i-Ready math growth of roughly 13% in sixth grade and 18% in seventh grade from fall to winter, and PSAT 8/9 results showing about 73% of eighth graders meeting ELA benchmarks. The middle-school report also highlighted efforts to expand pre-algebra in seventh grade and algebra in eighth grade to accelerate student pathways to high school coursework.
High-school staff described routine SAT administration (about 90% attendance that day) and continued literacy gains, while noting that high-school math performance lagged relative to literacy. District presenters reported a large year-over-year increase on the New Hampshire science assessment and said dual-enrollment participation continued to grow; Southern New Hampshire University credits totaled 256 for the year after an additional 149 students earned credit this semester.
Board members welcomed the data and asked staff to clarify how full-day kindergarten will affect benchmarks next year and to continue examining math instruction at the high school. Several members credited PLC (professional learning community) work, targeted interventions, and curriculum adjustments for the district’s gains and urged continued cross-school sharing of effective practices.
The board’s next steps, as described by staff, include examining third-to-fourth-grade transitions in literacy, aligning K–1 benchmarks for the shift to full-day kindergarten, monitoring state spring assessments, and evaluating early results of curriculum changes in math and reading.
