Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Literacy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Palm Springs Unified reports districtwide gains on DIBELS reading screener, outlines literacy interventions
Summary
District staff reported an 8% increase in students scoring at or above grade level on the end‑of‑year DIBELS screener, with English learners up 11% and kindergarten up 24%. The district will expand literacy coaching, targeted diagnostics and progress monitoring.
Jessica Whiteman, director of elementary curriculum and instruction for Palm Springs Unified, presented the district’s end‑of‑year DIBELS reading‑screener results and the district’s plan to respond. "When I compare beginning of the year to the end of the year, Palm Springs Unified increased overall our students who are at and above grade level," Whiteman said, reporting an overall 8% increase and highlighting subgroup gains: Hispanic students up 9%, English learners up 11% and kindergarten up 24%.
Whiteman told the board the district will use literacy coaches, the UFLI reading intervention curriculum, and targeted diagnostic assessments for students scoring in the red or yellow bands. Parents receive results through ParentSquare and ParentVUE and the district provides home‑connect resources tied to individual student reports. Whiteman said the district will add interim progress checkpoints for students in red/yellow so intervention does not wait until the next benchmark window.
The presentation also noted state and grant supports: 13 sites qualified for a reading specialist grant and the governor’s proposed budget includes extending that funding through 2031, a change the district said would help sustain coach positions and site supports. Next steps include site‑level analysis, continuing coaching cycles and monitoring results at the start of the 2026–27 school year.
