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District presents midyear assessment data; staff cite reading gains but low state proficiency
Summary
Port Orford-Langlois SD 2CJ administrators reported midyear gains on local interim assessments but flagged low proficiency on the Oregon State Assessment (OSAS). Staff outlined targeted interventions including Step Up to Writing PD, keyboarding practice, and a new math intervention (VMAP).
Port Orford-Langlois SD 2CJ staff presented midyear student-assessment results at a district data workshop, saying local measures show growth while the state test remains a concern. Donna Johannes Meyer, the district's Title I reading teacher, told the board that iReady and DIBELS interim assessments show reading gains but that the Oregon State Assessment (OSAS) proficiency rate remains low: "18% of our students were proficient," she said, adding that OSAS measures more writing and comprehension demands than the interim tools.
The workshop covered the six monitoring metrics the district reports to the Oregon Department of Education: third-grade reading proficiency, eighth-grade math proficiency, ninth-grade on-track status, four-year graduation rates, five-year completer rates and overall attendance. Meyer described iReady and DIBELS results as complementary: DIBELS focuses on decoding and fluency in early grades, while iReady measures vocabulary and comprehension. She said the district's matched-cohort DIBELS data show movement out of intensive intervention for some students but noted a persistent pocket who remain well below grade level and need tier-3 supports.
To address gaps that show up on the state assessment, staff detailed concrete steps. Meyer said the district has purchased Step Up to Writing and plans professional development next fall; it is implementing daily keyboarding practice ("Keyboarding Without Tiers") to help students navigate OSAS's typed writing portions; and it is maintaining structured literacy tiers and small-group interventions. For math, staff described adopting VMAP, an evidence-based intervention, and providing targeted Title I small-group instruction.
Board members asked for disaggregated breakdowns by grade and subgroup; Meyer said she can provide those details and has created slide-level views and spreadsheets to share. Staff and members also discussed test familiarization and administration practices as a way to reduce platform navigation errors and test anxiety. "Practice with the testing platform with targeted writing practice" was listed as a near-term step, Meyer said.
The district emphasized that mobility and nonmatched cohorts complicate direct comparisons between interim and state measures. Meyer recommended focusing on foundational skills that support both reading and writing, while using practice to build comfort with the OSAS interface. The board left the workshop with requests for further breakdowns of iReady/DIBELS by subgroup and grade and with plans to follow up on the Step Up to Writing rollout and VMAP implementation.
