Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Academic Assessment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board reviews ambitious academic, attendance and SEL goals as DPI scoring changes complicate baselines
Summary
District staff presented targets for ELA, math, attendance and social-emotional learning and described using interim assessments and partner outreach (including Oneida Nation) to raise ninth-grade attendance and address gaps; trustees raised concerns about Wisconsin DPI’s revised scoring and how to compare year-over-year results.
District leaders presented the Green Bay Area Public School District’s annual goals for English language arts, mathematics, attendance and social-emotional learning during the Sept. 9 work session, and outlined how the district will monitor progress amid state testing changes.
David Johns, joined by Associate Director of Assessment and Data Jess van den Heuvel, said the district used a multi-year trend (post‑COVID) to set growth targets that are consistent with last year’s goals — five to ten percent increases in ELA and eight to ten percent in math — and identified a "priority performance group" to focus equity work. "We're making progress with all students. We have a long way to go...and it's also clear that as we work to address students overall, we need to be mindful of some students that we have not served as well," Johns said.
On attendance, Johns said the district set ambitious increases in average daily attendance and emphasized the transition to ninth grade as an area requiring extra supports. "You gotta be present to succeed," he told the board, describing a layered approach that begins with outreach after five absences, escalates supports at 10 days, includes parent/caregiver events, and involves a partnership with the Oneida Nation on public awareness linking attendance and reading success.
Trustees pressed staff for measurement details. Several trustees — including James and Andrew — raised that Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has rewritten ELA and math scoring this year and recommended treating the year as a fresh start; Jess said DPI provided no direct translation to former scores and the district will rely on internal measures, interim assessments (Canvas, MasteryConnect) and item-level standards data to monitor progress.
Johns outlined a schedule for interim reporting: a January focus on elementary reading and a March focus on secondary achievement. He and trustees discussed using technology to reduce teacher time spent on assessments while producing system-level snapshots: Johns said tools can lower teacher assessment time and give the board regular progress updates.
On social-emotional learning, Johns said the district used the Panorama normed survey across grades 3–12 (about 8,000 student responses) to measure domains such as emotional regulation (elementary) and sense of belonging (secondary); data showed gaps for First Nations students that the district plans to address through targeted supports.
Board members asked for additional breakdowns (for example, student mobility and turnover), clarity on how annual curriculum evaluation would interact with a five‑year adoption cycle, and regular interim summaries so trustees can monitor progress rather than wait for annual release of state report cards.
No formal vote was taken; administration flagged planned interim updates and committed to provide requested analyses.
