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Hamilton board approves action plan to close achievement gaps, expands MTSS/PLT work and targeted interventions
Summary
Trustees approved a district status report and action plan focused on MTSS tiers, professional learning teams (PLTs), social-emotional screening pilots and targeted ACT prep; board asked for ongoing metric comparisons after recent state cut-score changes.
The Hamilton School District board on Jan. 27 approved a district status report and an action plan aimed at closing achievement gaps and improving state report-card metrics, emphasizing multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS), professional learning teams (PLTs) and targeted interventions.
A district presenter told trustees that this year the district is showing progress in closing gaps on English language arts and mathematics and outlined two central goals: strengthen social-emotional learning and align learning and assessment practices. "This year, we were able to say for English language arts that we are closing gaps," the presenter said.
As part of the action plan, the district highlighted pilot work at Marcy Elementary using the FastBridge "SAVERS" screener (social, academic, emotional, behavioral risk screener) for kindergarten through fourth grade. The district said the screener is part of tools it already owns and that early staff and student feedback has been positive.
At Hamilton High School, administrators outlined an ACT-prep schedule for juniors that uses advisement periods: Monday (reading), Tuesday (math), Wednesday (English), Thursday (science) and Friday (writing). The goal is to offer both open enrichment sessions and a targeted program for roughly 25 juniors in the lower 25th percentile to boost outcomes.
District staff described an MTSS "response road map" (sometimes called the "snake slide") in which teacher teams meet regularly to launch units, collect formative data and provide short-cycle interventions; district presenters said teams are already seeing gains when targeted interventions are used for several weeks. A school representative reported average gains of about one point on their grade-level rubric after six intervention sessions in one unit.
Board discussion focused on the recent changes to DPI cut scores and how the district will report progress. Trustees asked for periodic updates and apples-to-apples comparisons using both the new and prior cut-score calculations where feasible. The board moved and approved the status report and action plan by voice vote.
What the plan does not do: The action plan approved is operational and strategy-focused; it does not change graduation requirements, reallocate major budget lines in this meeting, or unilaterally reverse state assessment policies. Trustees asked the administration to continue monthly updates and to bring back comparative metrics if DPI makes further changes.
Next steps: district teams will continue unit-based PLT work, scale the Marcy Elementary screener as appropriate, run the planned ACT-prep advisement sessions beginning next month, and provide regular monitoring updates to the board.
