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Bethalto CUSD 8 principals outline school improvement plans as state testing rules shift
Summary
Building principals across Bethalto CUSD 8 presented school improvement plans highlighting early‑grade literacy gains, expanded interventions and SEAL supports, a district push on attendance, and caution about interpretation of newly aligned state proficiency cut scores and a new assessment vendor at the high school.
Principals from Bethalto CUSD 8 presented fall benchmarking and school improvement plans to the district, saying statewide changes to proficiency cut scores have made direct historical comparisons difficult and prompting district goals focused on literacy, targeted interventions and improved attendance.
The meeting opened with a reminder that the Illinois Department of Education "right‑sized" proficiency bands from five categories into four, which will make year‑to‑year charts look inconsistent. The moderator told the audience to expect odd jumps in some charts as a result.
At Bethalto East, the presenter said kindergarten and incoming first‑grade benchmarks were 8–11% higher than past cohorts and that the school "exceeded our typical and aggressive growth by 18% last year," crediting expanded pre‑K screening, a new UFI literacy program and a block RTI schedule called Eagle Time. East leaders described a layered approach of PLT planning, common formative assessments and tiered interventions to sustain gains.
Parkside’s first‑year presenter said fall ELA figures were technically down 4% from the prior year’s start but stable from last spring, and noted that cut‑score changes shifted some students into higher categories (for example, exceeds rose from 1% to 7% after reclassification). Parkside will expand the UFI curriculum into third grade, use Eagle Time intervention blocks and continue three daily reading rounds and PLC/benchmark cycles to move students from "approaching proficient" into proficiency.
Metobrook and other K–5 buildings emphasized common strategies: PLT‑driven unit planning, common formative assessments, tier‑2 and tier‑3 pull‑outs and classroom push‑ins by a new social worker. One building reported 32 students moved down or were released from tier‑3 intervention in a single quarter while eight students required increased supports, evidence the schools said that their tier system is working.
The high school presentation recapped three years of changing college‑readiness tests and the district’s adoption of Progress Learning (the remapped assessment platform). The presenter cautioned that initial fall scores in some grades appear high and said "we feel that those numbers are over inflated," so the school is anchoring targets to ACT pre‑data and continuing ACT‑focused instruction and boot camps.
Across schools, principals described attendance work as a shared priority: weekly staff reviews, tiered family letters, text notifications for students at or above 90%, attendance clubs and incentives. The high school presenter highlighted a student survey about attendance that identified 50 students who indicated "nobody would notice" if they skipped school; the school said it distributed that list to teachers and used outreach to reconnect those students.
No formal votes or motions were recorded in the presentations; principals closed with next steps focused on maintaining intervention schedules, expanding curricula where indicated and continuing data review in PLTs and benchmark meetings. The district’s presenters asked for questions and concluded their prepared remarks.
