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Superintendent says Ithaca district is "strong," cites rising AP enrollment and co‑curricular participation
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Brown told the board the district is "strong," citing 69.1% AP/dual‑enrollment participation, rising AP scores and a 68.6% secondary co‑curricular participation rate, while urging continued attention to literacy and disproportionality.
Dr. Brown opened the board's "state of the district" presentation on April 28 by saying the district is "strong," and outlined three priorities: fiscal stability, improving student achievement and transparency of data and governance.
"The state of our district is strong," Dr. Brown said, and invited the public to review the district's data portfolio online and contact the district with questions. He noted the district has emphasized presenting manipulable data rather than unreadable slide decks.
The superintendent read several metrics into the record: "69.1% of our students are enrolled in at least one AP or dual enrollment course," 302 students take TC3 college‑credit courses while still in high school (most averaging about 11 credits), roughly 538 students took about 1,100 AP exams, and 43.7% of AP exam scores were fours or fives. He also said secondary co‑curricular participation is 68.6% and that elementary orchestra participation is 66.7%.
Board members and staff credited new public data tools that allow community members to explore indicators by subgroup. Lynn (district data staff) was acknowledged for work on a Tableau system that the superintendent said lets users "look at our data by sub‑membership group and other categories." Communications staff described increases in newsletters, school stories and translation/accessibility features to reach families.
Board members praised the district's work and asked follow‑up questions about remaining gaps. Ben noted the district is continuing to raise achievement while serving a more complex student population; Mary described an anecdote about a first grader explaining a schwa to their grandparents as a qualitative sign of literacy gains. Dr. Brown said the district remains focused on closing disproportionality in outcomes and improving literacy supports, particularly for students with disabilities.
The presentation closed with an invitation for deeper review in committee sessions and through the district's public dashboards; the board moved on to the next agenda item after a period of member questions.
Next steps: the board and staff said they will continue committee work on curriculum, literacy interventions and public reporting, and the district encouraged stakeholders to use the online tools to examine scenarios and metrics.
