Staff recommends SIPs as district‑wide reading intervention after pilot shows stronger growth

District staff recommended adopting the SIPs reading intervention program district‑wide after a year of piloting at two sites and comparative analysis using i‑Ready diagnostic data.

Kara Schwint, the district’s general‑education program specialist, summarized the pilot design and reported the comparative figures: students receiving SIPs averaged about 101 percent of typical annual growth with a median near 91 percent, while LLI students averaged about 94.82 percent with a median near 60.5 percent. “Our recommendation in the educational services department is that we move forward having SIPs as our district wide reading intervention program,” Schwint said. She told trustees that adopting SIPs district‑wide would require purchasing materials and training reading‑intervention staff at Auburn Elementary in addition to continuing SIPs at Sky Ridge and E.V. Kane.

Trustees asked whether SIPs supports students with dyslexia and how classroom teachers would be trained if SIPs were expanded. Staff said SIPs includes multisensory options and that classroom teachers would need training to use the materials for tier‑1 and tier‑2 instruction; staff recommended rolling the program out through reading‑intervention teachers and then considering classroom integration. The board did not take a final, binding vote on districtwide adoption at this meeting; staff said the purchase and any surplusing of LLI materials would come back on a consent agenda once the board confirms the direction.