RISD reports MAP end‑of‑year gains; several campuses highlight strategies behind growth

Dr. Gina Ortiz presented Richardson ISD's end‑of‑year MAP assessment results, telling the board the district exceeded national norms for expected student growth: "We are 5 percentage points above what the national norm is for growth in reading and 8 points above in mathematics," she said. Ortiz noted structural changes to NWEA's norms and item selection algorithm meant 2025–26 scores could not be directly compared to prior years, but the district reported that more students met their expected growth this year than the national benchmark.

Principals DeMarcus Gorey (Forest Lane Academy) and Sharon Newman (Jess Harbin Elementary) described campus practices they credited for gains: explicit student goal setting, teachers and instructional leaders working in classrooms, regular data meetings, targeted interventions, and motivational tactics such as "treat carts" and Saturday school. Gorey said staff and leaders were "all hands on deck," noting he personally taught a block during the year to support classrooms. Newman described using celebrations and student incentives to counter test fatigue and boost engagement.

Trustees asked about the MAP revisions and alignment to state STAR measures; Ortiz and staff said NWEA's changes (updated Texas normative data and adaptive item selection that better matches item difficulty to student level) prevent simple year‑over‑year comparisons for this year, but the district expects stronger alignment in 2026–27 and will conduct correlation studies as new norms settle.