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District staff outline rollout plan for Wisconsin Act 20 literacy rules
Summary
District staff briefed the board on implementing Wisconsin's Act 20 literacy requirements, including use of AIMSweb Plus as the universal screener, required diagnostics for students below the 25th percentile, personal reading plans, and upcoming staff training beginning the next day.
Marie, a district instructional staff member, told the board the district is preparing to implement several statewide changes tied to Wisconsin Act 20, including mandatory screening and diagnostic procedures for early literacy.
The presentation said the state-approved universal screener is AIMSweb Plus and that the district will begin using it this winter. "It's 5 to 17 minutes per student," Marie said, adding the district has previously used AIMSweb Plus for progress monitoring. She noted the timeline changed after state decisions in July delayed full implementation to allow more training time.
Marie summarized diagnostic requirements for students who score below the 25th percentile on the universal screener. "For every student that's below the 25th percentile on AIMSweb, we have a required diagnostic that we have to give them," she said, and added that i-Ready is on the approved list of diagnostics the district already uses.
The presentation also covered personal reading plans: students who fall below the 25th percentile must have a plan, and the district is coordinating with special education staff on whether those plans will be housed within individual education plans or maintained separately. Marie said the district is exploring a data warehouse to manage the expected volume of personal reading plans and related reporting to families.
Marie told the board that statewide funding for early literacy coaches — positions meant to support districts — had not yet been released and that hiring or deployment of those coaches remains uncertain. She urged caution in communicating early screening results to parents for very young students, noting developmental variability in kindergarten and early grades.
Board members asked clarifying questions about whether using i-Ready would add testing time; Marie responded that i-Ready would count and not require an additional universal screen, though some additional targeted screening (for dyslexia, for example) might be needed.
The district will begin required reading training for staff the following day and continue work through the year to implement the law's requirements. The board thanked Marie and district staff for the update.
The district administrator preceded the presentation and framed it as an update on the district's readiness to meet Act 20 deadlines; the board did not take formal action tied to the presentation during the meeting.
