001Ladies and gentlemen, it is now 6:45 p.m. and a quorum of members is present. So, the meeting of the board of education of the school district of New Berlin is called to order. Please call the role. Miss Crosby here. Mr. Helmer. Miss Kik, Miss Schultz here, Mr. Cidle, Miss Spindler here, Mr. Zinsky here. Uh, so Miss Conic, Mr. Halmer, and Mr. um, Cidle all let me know that they are unable to be here this evening. So then, do I have a motion to recess to close session? I move to adjourn into close session pursuant to section 19.85 851 CE and F of the Wisconsin statutes to consider A the approval of close session minutes of May 27th and B the employment performance and compensation matters pertaining to staff. Second that I have a motion by
002Miss Crosby and a second by Mr. Zalinsky. Please call the role. Miss Crosby, yes. Mr. Zinsky, yes. Miss Schulz, yes. Miss Spindler, yes. We are moving into close session. Return to open session around 7 o'clock. It is now 7 o'clock and we are returning from close session into open session. In recognition of the serious and important nature of our efforts here, we will join in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. For all those who are able, please rise. America. And this is the portion where we have a moment of silence. I'm going to pass this to Superintendent Garza. Yes. Yeah. So, unfortunately, we we received sad news Saturday morning that um one of our fourth grade students at Ronald Reagan passed away unexpectedly as a result of a boating accident on Little Mosqu. Uh
003the student was a fourth he had just finished fourth grade on Friday and um as I understand it was a very articulate, wellspoken, kind and polite young man. uh he leaves behind his mom and dad and his younger brother uh who is currently a kinder finished kindergarten over at Ronald Reagan and uh we're certainly sad of the news. We have been in contact with the family and the Ronald Reagan community letting them know that we are here to support whoever is needed given the devastating news. Um and uh in the communication that we sent out, there is a GoFundMe page and a and a meal train plan that's uh also out there. So for those that are happen to be listening um you know, please uh take a look out on social media, that's all
004out there. But certainly saddened by the news and um as we enter into this moment of silence, you know, please keep the student and the family in our thoughts and prayers. This is a public meeting of the board of education. Prior to this meeting, notice was given to the public last Friday by providing the agenda to the city library. The agenda was also posted on the district website. A copy of the agenda was forwarded to the Journal Sentinel, the Wauaawa Freeman, and the Waka Now, all of which have filed requests for all public notices. And we have a recognition this evening for our student representative, Claire Marovski. So, it is with great pride that we recognize Miss Claire Marovski as she completes her term as the Eisenhower student representative for the School District of New
005Berlin's Board of Education. Claire has consistently demonstrated a remarkable work ethic, challenging herself in her pursuit of academic excellence. She's an advocate for her her own learning, actively working with teachers and fellow students to elevate her educational journey. She has taken on and successfully completed rigorous coursework to support her future goals. And her aspirations to pursue a career in business with the intention of earning a degree in supply chain management with a possible minor in Spanish are a testament to her ambition and dedication. Beyond her academic achievements, Clare has taken on numerous leadership roles. She has served as a captain of the Eisenhower girls soccer team, been an active member of the student athlete leadership team, DECA and student union, among others. Her involvement in various student activities, community events, and volunteer work highlights her
006commitment to making a positive impact within our district and greater community. As one of two volunteer student representatives on the school board, Clare has provided invaluable insights and represented her peers well throughout her term of service. Her leadership is truly commendable and has been supportive to the success of our district. Claire, we are grateful for your contributions, your dedication, drive, and caring nature um and lasting impact on Eisenhower, our district, and community. We have no doubt that you will continue to excel in all your future endeavors. Thank you, Claire, for your exceptional service and best of luck in all that lies ahead. [Applause] with the board. Yes. Can we get Okay. Should we come over here? Yes. Right in the middle of the expect excellence there. There you go. No pressure, right? Little bit. That's
007not And good luck tomorrow. Thursday. Thursday. Got it. All right. Good luck Thursday. All right. Claire, I know you're super busy, so yes, we'll see you later. I know. Thanks for coming back tonight. My mom right there. Oh, did we get her her um So, Claire, is it sectionals? Yes. Semi on Thursday. here. All right. Good luck. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Okay. Then privilege of the floor. Do we have any this evening? No. Okay. Uh president's message. I would like to congratulate all of our new graduates. Again, we had some very lovely uh uh graduation ceremonies uh where members of the board were able to attend this past Friday and past Saturday. And so, we wish all of our graduates uh well, and we're so proud of you. It's just amazing all the accomplishments
008we hear that our students have done this year. Administrative team report, superintendent's update. I'll just defer my updates uh to the regular agenda items. Okay, so we have the consent agenda. Um, next up, do I have a motion for the consent agenda? I move to approve the consent agenda. I have a motion by Miss Crosby and a second by Mr. Zalinski. And by the way, it includes the notice the approval of minutes of May 27th and the WIAA 2526 membership renewals. Um, do you want to rem uh pull out anything for separate consideration? And hearing uh none, all those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. I'm sorry, I probably missed discussion there, but did anybody have any discussion? Okay. Usually don't. Uh, up next is the teaching and learning spring screener presentation. So,
009as the board is aware, we have a new cadence this year for our data presentations to the board. Uh, I'm going to have the team uh give you uh the most updated information that we have. Please note that we while we are currently in receipt of the uh forward data from the the state exam, we are we literally just received those late last week. So as soon as we get more information, we'll be able to do some in in internal comparisons, but it still won't be probably at least another couple months, I think, Matt uh and Kelly and Amanda before we actually are able to do comparisons externally. So with that, I'll hand it over to the team. Good evening. Hi, I'm Amanda Mazerkowitz and I am the director of student services and our teaching
010and learning team is here tonight. So we have Kelly Quakowski, our director of secondary teaching and learning and Matt Steneski, our director of elementary teaching and learning. So I'm going to go ahead and get started and I am going to just also draw your attention to board in your packet that you have two different sets of handouts. One is disagregated data by school and that shows you comparisons from each of our six schools from fall to spring using our universal screening data. So you can see the growth within the school year. And then you also have a separate packet that has disagregated data for our subgroups that is spring to spring year-over-year. So you can see it's not true cohort data but kind of gives you a look at how those subgroups are performing year-over-year.
011So this presentation this evening is going to focus on fastbridge which is our consistent universal screener that we use kindergarten through 9th grade. You're also going to see some as web plus data that's for our youngest learners as part of act 20 that Matt will present on and all of that information. So the information that is in your packets, the information that we're going to present forward like Joe just talked about as well as classroom assessment data, progress monitoring data, all of that filters into and it allows us to create our D district action plan. We're actually going to spend the next three days as a district um leadership team and with school leadership teams really diving further into data and learning about a process called sale, which is a leadership process to help us
012um create action plans. plans. And so we'll have a district action plan that feeds into our school action plans and al ultimately down to that classroom and teacher level where they're creating student learning objectives and looking at individual instruction intervention and extension opportunities for students. So with that, I'm going to just go ahead and ground us in this graphic that you've seen before when we've come up to present. And it really is just a great reminder that our ultimate goal is to produce students who are college and career ready. And we use multiple pieces of data to do that. So, a universal screener, which we're going to talk about tonight, really is something that helps us just look at and inform overall instruction. So, it helps us understand which students are meeting our benchmarks, which
013students might need additional intervention and which students are ready for some extension. There's also other measures like the forward exam that are ultimately a measure of achievement for students and then as for your overall district that feeds into the school report card which as you know is a measure of district and school accountability. Then we use other pieces of data like our common assessments in all subject areas and grades and progress monitoring data which really then drive the actual daily instruction for our students. When we think about a universal screener, best practice is to give that three times a year and it's given outside of the general curriculum and it helps identify those students strengths and areas for growth. As mentioned on the last slide and when I started, FastBridge is our consistent universal screening
014tool that we use kindergarten through 9th grade. We had some internal discussions about what to do with fastbridge now that we have to use as web but we're going to use as web for the act 20 purposes in those lower grades but consistently still use fastbridge um so that we have that that K9 look particularly in math as well. So um four through nine for all areas and then um K through nine in math. So, um, as I said before, it really is to help us look at intervention for students, extension for students, and it also when you're using a universal screening tool, what it does is it allows you to see if your curriculum is solid. A solid curriculum will reach at least 80% of students. As we get started here, just going to
015give you a reminder of who we are as a district in terms of our demographics and how that compares to our surrounding districts. That's also helpful when, as Joe talked about, we're looking at external measures like ACT and Forward, and we can compare that to how we're doing with against other districts. But then seeing those demographics also plays uh a critical factor. The two farthest columns to your right are the most recent sets of data, though we give you that trend data back all the way through 2020. So, what you've already seen before is the third, Friday, and September data, and that's our pupil count that that is certified with DPI. And then we also had a pupil count in May. And one of the things I wanted to draw your attention to is overall
016we are down five students in our overall enrollment. However, we have increased in the number of students who are considered economically disadvantaged. So we have 60 more students throughout the school year that are classified as being economically disadvantaged. And we also have grown in the number of students who are considered English learners by um having another 19 students just since September. um in our schools who are um have limited English proficiency. Here is how we compare to other. So we weren't able to give you in earlier presentations the 2024 2025 because that data was not yet public but now it is so that you can see the most recent data across our area and this is the percentage of students who are considered economically disadvantaged. Here is the percent of students who have disabilities or
017who have IEPs. We'll talk about students with disabilities in a couple of slides as well when we talk about 504 plans, but 504 plans is not a publicly um gathered set of data. So, we can only compare for students who have IEPs. And then here is the percent of students who are considered English language learners or again who have that limited English proficiency. And as you can see, we are this um have the second highest percentage in the area just behind Wacaaw. Digging a little bit deeper. So going back to those students with disabilities again, you have on the second to bottom row and then the bottom row that third Friday count compared to our May data count. And one of the things that you will notice is that our students with IEPs have grown
018throughout the school year, particularly at our elementary level. We um had 15 more students identify as having a disability at our elementary level throughout the school year. Um although a success is that we dismissed almost 10 students at our secondary level. And so that helps us know that over time in our district as we're continuing to work with students and provide that high level of intervention, we are exiting some students out of special education. And then this refers to those students who have 504 plans. Did you have a question? in terms of students with disabilities. Yeah. So, a couple of different ways. Yes. One is through that screening and after we've provided intervention to students. If we notice that that intervention is not intense enough and they haven't grown enough, then we um may refer
019them for a special education evaluation and dig a little bit deeper and determine that they are eligible for services. Sometimes it's also by parent referral um or teacher referral outside of that screening process. Just it's really just based on what their needs are and what the referral is for. So here is that slide that shows the overall number and percentage of students who have 504 plans. So a 504 plan, the student still has a disability. They're categor categorized as having a disability under the law, but where they don't receive that specially designed instruction and intervention that's part of an IEP. They do receive accommodations that our classroom teachers are responsible for ensuring are are provided within the classroom, which um is really important for those students. Then it also is uh uh something that our
020teachers take very seriously in order to make sure that those students can access the curriculum. Most notably, we have increased the number even throughout the school year at both the elementary and secondary level with um just over 25 students at the secondary levels being eligible for a 504 plan and about 15 students at that elementary level. And then those ILPS are for students who are considered English learners or who have that limited English proficiency. This is that fastest growing subgroup that I've talked to you about the last couple of presentations. Whereas you can see since 2020, we've over doubled um the number of students who are identified as English learners. In this year alone, we've increased even throughout the school year as I talked about on that earlier demographic slide. So with that, I'm going
021to turn it over to my colleague Matt and he's going to walk you through the elementary results of our spring screening data. Thank you. Get this out of your way, Mr. F. Good evening. So we're going to be reviewing FastBridge fall to spring data and Ames Web Plus winter to spring. And Ames Web Plus is the universal screener that's mandated by act 20 started this winter. All right. So, at or above the 40th percentile is considered proficient. And so, as mentioned earlier, 80% proficiency lets us know, you know, that our core instruction is effective for most students. But, of course, always striving to go above that mark. This is the uh universal screener for Ames Web Plus that measures uh fluency. Nice area of growth here. Um, it's very similar to the Fastbridge CBM. It's
022a one minute passage that the kid has the kids have to read. So, the test is similar, but the levels of rigor are different. So, for example, for third grade, the amount of words read correct per minute that's expected of fastbridge is 125, but for oral reading fluency, it's 118. Just two two different tests. And even the words the words that are selected that are for these passages even that level of rigor or the different types of words that they put in are very different depending on the passages that are that are given to the student. So that's the fluency measures. These are all spring to spring over time or over year to year. And this is our CB fast bridge CBM spring to spring year-over-year for our subgroups. um students did not take the
023AS web oral reading fluency in the spring of last year. So this is just fastbridge. And so let me see where I got my notes here. Sorry. One way to look at this as we talked about last time we met was to just pick out one subgroup and see their growth over time. And another way is to look at that subgroup and then compare it to students for example without disabilities. So take students with disabilities and you can go, you know, year by year, but you could also compare it the gap to where peers without disabilities are performing. One thing to consider when looking at the subgroup data is that the needs of one particular student with a disability or English not being their first language can be drastically different than the needs of another
024student in that subgroup. Also to note, some students may be part of multiple subgroups. Fastbridge A reading. This measures general reading skills. So this is all students at or above the 40th percentile. Yeah. Each spring year-over-year. And now this is also fast bridge A reading, but this is all students at or above the 55th percentile. Now, with the new test and new cut scores on the forward exam, a correlation can no longer be made with students performing at or above the 55th and then performing really well on the forward exam. That's something we used to look at every year and we can't do that anymore because of how the forward exam has changed. So, this will probably be the most likely the last time we shared this data set with you utilizing that 55th. So,
025still with Fastbridge A reading, but this is um following a cohort of students. So third graders from last spring to their fourth grade year now, not exactly the same students, but the majority of the students are the same as a way to look at their growth from one year to the next. And this is that same cohort at or above the 55th percentile. Staying with a reading, general reading skill skills, this is at or above the 40th percentile for subgroups. noticing each subgroup over time and then comparing the achievement of one subgroup to the rest of the students. Moving on to math. Fastbridge A math. This is all students at or above the 40th. This gen this measures general math skills. And then here's your AMath at or above the 55th. A math third to
026fourth grade cohort and then the same cohort at or above the 55th. And then here is your general math skills with uh subgroups. And then finally for math we measure uh fact fluency or automaticity. So this is fastbridge at all students third grade at or above the 40th. Here they are at or above the 55th and automaticity for our subgroups. some really nice growth over time with our subgroups with fact fluency in math. So, some things to highlight this evening. Um, also as as Amanda mentioned in your packet, we just talked about the subgroups in automath consistent growth over year. One thing when we when we were here in the fall, we talked about that actual that third grade CBM reading their their fluency. That was an area of growth for us, an area of
027concern back in the fall. And so we talked about some of the action steps we're going to do for that. And then they started the year at 73% above the 40th. Now they're at 81%. So a nice um growth that became a strength. And the subgroups as we showed in this this slide, every subgroup grew in oral reading fluency. So they took that a kindergarten through third graders took that third grade oral reading fluency passage for the first time in the winter. And then they grew from winter to spring even with a new test. And so this is all the students, but in your packet you'll be able to see the subgroup growth in that. So now some areas of growth or areas of concern that we're going to look at over the summer are
028the subgroups for a reading. So, we've noticed that there's a a pretty pretty large gap as far as the percent of students at or above the 40th with the subgroups. Even though we did have the students with disabilities grow from 37% to 48%, there was still large enough gap to be a little bit of concern or area of growth for us. And then when we look at fluency, so CBM reading for fastbridge, overall we're at that 80% mark, but the once again that gap with the subgroups is a concern. But when you do take a look at your packet, you'll see that those students that are economically disadvantaged, they had some really nice growth in that fluency measure this year. Amanda mentioned the action plans that come out of data reviews like this. And that's
029why we wanted to have in your packet you could look at each each data set for each school for each test. And then we determine district action plans, school action plans, and student learning objectives. And a lot of that work is going to start tomorrow with the sale academy along with our math alignment. We've been researching resources all year and we will teachers will be piloting a new math curriculum for next year. Thank you so much Kelly and secondary. So similar to elementary we give fast bridge three times a year in seventh, eighth and ninth grade. um with the exception of students who are after postal algebra. So we're going to start with a reading. A reading is most similar to the forward reading passages as well as the ACT. It's measuring comprehension and some
030general reading skills. Um we are consistently around 80% this year being 79% of students are uh proficient which is defined at at or above the 40th percentile. when looking at cohorts. So, our seventh grade students from last year, spring of 24 to our eighth grade students this year, spring of 2025, we did see some growth similar to the growth that we saw last year from our seventh graders who are now eighth grade students in the A-Rading universal screening assessment. when looking at seventh graders over time in subgroups. That is our subgroup um picture when looking at auto reading. And the this is basic foundational reading skills. So the morphology, vocabulary, um basic reading skills that you would expect your students to have in seventh grade. This is how they're doing over time. we did see
031a slight decrease um but still consistent with the above 80% of students and when looking at cohort data those were our seventh grade graders last year to eighth grade this year I think what's important to note is that we're looking at which of those students um were successful last year that are not successful this year we also noticed that we're seeing some success with something called Morphe magic where we're look working on Latin roots with our seventh graders quite extensively each day in seventh grade English class. We're seeing success with that. So for next year in eighth grade, a group of teachers are working on that over the summer to do the same thing with our eighth grade students. And this is a seventh grade auto reading. Again, some foundational reading skills within our subgroups.
032I think it's important to know our econ population saw a big amount of I don't want to say growth because it's not the same students last year as this year but we saw an increase in students who are proficient at seventh grade and that's tier one. Just because a student is ecundis does not mean that they're in an intervention. our students, many of our students who are students with disabilities who have a reading um deficit or a student who is identified as EL are in interventions. As far as a math, now we're talking about math. This is most similar to the forward or the ACT type assessment with math questions in the area of pre-alggebra, algebra, geometry, and then if they get those right, they go up to algebra 2 and some trigonometry. um we
033see consistent growth everything be above the 80th percentile. And then when looking at cohort data, so seventh grade students in spring last year to eighth grade students this year, we did see uh decline. We know that's 15 students. We're looking at those students and what kind of topics that they struggled with in mathematics, what courses that they're in, which school are they at. We're digging in deeper over the next couple weeks to figure out if we can see any trends and if we could have prevented any of that dip. When looking at a math proficiency by subgroup, that is our picture. We didn't see the same success we saw last spring when looking at our automath. So, this is our fast fluency math skills. Um, we did see an increase when looking at our seventh
034grade students over time with 85% of our students at or above the 40th percentile. This is something that our middle school teachers have been working on at both schools. And this is the seventh graders last year and now they're eighth graders this year. And these are students in our subgroup with all of our subgroups looking more successful than those from last year in spring or the same. And these would be skills if students are in intervention that they're directly working on. So areas of strength that we saw our seventh to eighth grade proficiently proficiency levels in a reading and automath grew slightly when examining cohort data. We still have some growth to do in our subgroup specifically um students with disabilities and mathematics and we are looking that with our alignment work too to making
035sure we're selecting some resources that can help us in that area and in some instructional strategies that we might need to improve upon. points of emphasis. Um, this was from fall, but our seventh grade students were coming in similar to last year's levels of proficiency. We are still meeting with our building leadership teams weekly, which was something that we implemented this year where half of their meetings need to be looking at either school-based data, district data, classroom data to examine um, growths, concerns, trends. And then we continue to target professional development in the area of literacy throughout this year. And we are also an analyzing um what our incoming sixth graders students are great at, what they need a little bit more work at. So when we get them in fall, we can start and
036hit the ground running right away. I want to say thank you to our elementary principles and staff who've given us great information in our transition meetings to be able to do that this year. And then new for fastbridge, we added some new math diagnostic assessments so we can better understand what our students need in those math interventions um to know exactly what type of intervention is needed. And just like Amanda said, this is just part of our data story. So we also examine forward assessment, ACT, classroom assessment and it really helps develop our goals from the classroom level to the school level to the district level um to the board level and all of those should align with our strategic uh plan and goals so we have co coherence as a system. Any questions? Um,
037yeah. Could you explain what the Ames web versus? I don't really understand that. Absolutely. So, they're both universal screeners, but Ames Webb is the one that the state says we have to do now for kindergarten through third grade. And so, they're they're the tests that they they have to take, they're similar, but one is just mandated by the state. And so when we talk about if we're talking about fluency for fastbridge, their fluency test is the CBM. And if we're talking about the fluency test for Ames Webb, it's the oral reading fluency. So different names, but it's still a one minute passage that the students read and we see how many words correct per minute can they can they do. For Ames Webb, they read two passages and there's like an average of their score.
038For FastBridge, it's three passages, but it's both measuring fluency. Um for another another example would be kindergarteners. So for Ames Webb they are supposed to do four different subtests for Ames Webb letter word sound fluency uh letter naming fluency and then for fastbridge it's called the early reading assessment but they're also looking at letter names letter sounds. So, similar tests, but the way that they score them or the way that, you know, like we said, some of the words that are chosen for the students makes the rigor different, but they're both assessing fluency. They're both assessing general reading skills. Just that the state act 20 says you have to give Ames Webb to kindergarten to third graders. So, fast bridge will be used for fourth and up and then as well be used. So the
039um younger kids don't have to do both. They just do. Correct. This spring we had them do both. Okay. Because in the fall they only did they only did fast bridge. Yeah. Because Ames Webb didn't start until winter. It wasn't mandated until winter. So then spring came and our teachers are very flexible and they're very very willing to do whatever. They did both so that we would have both sets of data to show growth from fall to spring and then from winter to spring. Next year it'll be K through three we'll do Ames Webb. Four through nine we'll do Fastbridge. So, we'll have some of that longitudinal data, but we're kind of starting over with just AS web then. Yeah. Um, one more question, Kelly. Do we have um ACT data back yet or not?
040Yes, we do. We do have ACT data. We can't compare it to the other districts yet. Um, but we do have it back and we've started looking at it. It will be part of the data set that we're looking at as a district and within our building teams the next couple days. Oh, thank you. Yeah. I think the difficulty Amy that we are finding is historical and longitudinal data. So like for example with the Ford exam they change the cut scores. So it makes it real difficult to do analysis uh looking backward. uh you know, we we needed to do what we needed to do this year with the two different universal screeners, but we also felt uh that it was important to maintain some of that integrity historically. And so, um we made the,
041you know, we made the decision to, you know, be be very cognizant of what our students are doing and what our staff are doing. And so we might not have the several years of historical data in these screeners moving forward at least K3. Did you guys look at u the comparison like scores to see kind of just get an idea of what the difference is? Yes, especially with that fluency passage. And so we noticed that and every as you'll see in the packet, it depends on the school and the students, but why did some why did most kids do better on one versus the other? Um, and so it was nice to have both sets of data for this spring. We just know that's a lot of testing for the kids. So going forward, we
042can't do that. But yes, we definitely take a look at that as kind of why. I think I think one of the conclusions we came to was kind of what I referenced earlier. Ames Webb has certain words um throughout the passage that aren't decodable at times and they're also repeated. So maybe the word like serial that's not decodable for a first grader, but that will be in the passage maybe four times. So if the students don't have that background knowledge, that's four errors right there on that on that one passage. And then as I referenced earlier, the the number expected. So Fastbridge says, "Okay, third graders, you need to read 125 to be 40th and above." and Ames Webb says 118. So for us it was this year was maybe more about digging into the
043tests and what you know it's asking the students to know. Um but of course moving forward it's why is there a difference and what are we doing about it? Matt, can you speak briefly to the phenomena we came across this year? I know that Jen and I have talked about this before with uh you know our move to a new curriculum based on the science of reading. Um, could there be misalignment with the Ford exam? Uh, was there I think based on our conversations, we also found out that sometimes in our we don't get to certain things in our curriculum until say later on yet the students are being assessed. There's misalignment in the timing of what's being done. Can you speak to that a little bit, Matt? Sure. So per ACT 20 students, kindergarten,
044this is one example, kindergarten students are assessed on letter names. Well, the science of reading philosophy in the curriculum, they don't teach letter names. They teach letter sounds first. And so when we saw some of this winter data for kindergarters, most did not do well on letter names. They did better on letter sounds because that's the scope and sequence of our curriculum. So that's another thing to consider. Um, speaking to the forward exam, we every year we take a look at what is what what types of questions are on the forward exam for literacy and math and it will tell you for example for math in most in I think most grade levels there's only maybe four to eight questions about geometry and fortunately in our scope and sequence geometry is taught last and so
045when the teachers see that some of the geometry scores maybe aren't as good it's kind of okay because the exam isn't focusing on that. The Ford exam is focusing on what students would have been taught up until that point. And so, for example, numbers and algebraic operations, there's 12 to 15 questions about that on the Ford exam. So, that's, you know, where our scope and sequence is more aligned um with the Ford exam that way. But we've had to talk through it with teachers a little bit too of it's okay if you're not introducing some of those things yet because they're not as much of an emphasis at least in number of questions. But then the this the DPI also puts out a little checklist of here are the number of questions per topic but
046also how difficult those questions are. And so some of those numbers in algebraic operations, yep, there's 12 to 15 and they expect mastery of it. Whereas with geometry, there's only four to eight questions and it's only meant to be kind of an introductory knowledge. And so we take a look at that every year and really break down the test of what was asked of them and how did they perform in each little topic. And it's the same for for ELA as well. Hopefully that makes sense. I had one quick question that I'm kind of curious about with some of the kids that do the fluency test and then you have also parameters for their comprehension. Do you find that those two scores usually are similar or do you find that sometimes they can be different?
047Because like you mentioned, they could get bumped up on one word. A minute is fast. But it doesn't necessarily mean they're not comprehending the material. That's very true. And you know, the fluency is a great indicator of whether whether or not they will be able to comprehend. So those students that are reading fluently at grade level typically do better with comprehension. But if they don't, there's there's kind Okay, now let's dig a little deeper. Um, so if the fluency is low, literacy coaches will administer diagnostics. Okay, where is it initial sounds? Is it ending sounds? Where are they getting confused? And then if they did really well in fluency but not on comprehension, okay, are they reading too fast? Um, do they need more of the prompts of go back and not during the test,
048but you know, go back and reread like when they're in their curriculum, go back and cite your evidence. Um, retell this for me. What why do you think the author was writing this? Who is who is the author writing this passage for? What do you think the theme is? So there's comprehension is another level. But if they're they got to be fluent first, I guess essentially is in its most simplest terms, they got to be fluent first. But yeah, that's another way. And then that's where the error analysis comes in. Why did they why did they not hit um benchmark in the fluency? Or if they did, why aren't they meeting it for comprehension? I have a question. I'm not sure who it's for. It might be for Aander. It might be for Joe. So,
049I'm there was a lot of data there. There's a lot of eye charts. Um, the thing I think I caught on to when you talked about demographics and you talked about the makeup of the classes. We've had a lot of growth in uh the subgroups, ILOPS, IEPs, all that. saw some very big numbers in changes from 21 to 25ish. Is that having correlation on some of these scores that are kind of either flatlining year-over-year or or a slight decline or just the growth pattern that we're looking for? I'll have Amanda come up with some more detail, but uh yes. Uh so so that is that concerns us because again you're not dealing with the same group of students yet our accountability is on growth right but our most our most our biggest challenges are with
050with these subgroups and that's why we're you know Amanda and the team have been very f focused on those subgroups. Amanda can you talk more about about that please? Yeah, sure. And I think even thinking about with um the question that Matt just answered about the correlation between fluency and comprehension, you'll notice that a lot of our students who have disabilities are going to strugg they're struggling on the fluency piece. And so until that is in order and that's what our a lot of our interventions focus on is that fluency piece to try to improve that so that then they can have better comprehension. I think what's challenging though um is it it's not reflected in this 40th percentile and above. So when we analyze again at that student level, we're making some tremendous progress
051with a lot of students who have disabilities, but they're still in the 1st through 25th percentile. And so they might have been in single digits and now at the end of the year when I'm looking at our coaches SLOs's or some of our teacher SLOs's, those students are into the 20s, which is tremendous. That's huge growth. However, it's still not going to translate to looking at benchmark because they're so far behind. And if you think about what you asked earlier in the presentation about some of these students who then, yep, they pop on a universal screener, we provide them intervention through our regular education process, they're already behind. They're staying behind despite all of the intervention that we're providing, and then they get to special education, they are oftentimes marketkedly behind where their peers are.
052And so it they're not going to catch up in a year, in two years, and three years. So that gap persists and over time we hope to close it, but again all of our regular students are growing exponentially too. So um that's the tricky part. I don't know if that answered your question, Mr. Zinsky. It it does. Um I guess I have a a follow on to that is what what can we do as a board or what resources can be provided or what additional things can be done because we're we're pushing hard for improved scores as a deliverable, right? you know, it's one of our our our key things we've been asking for and I see I see from the data that that linkage there and I think you're saying that's a yes. So,
053what what can we as a board do to help make that happen? It doesn't have to be answered today, but I think it's something I do think that um that you should be aware and I think based on you know when we bring the employment services report to the board uh you will have noted I'll have Amanda speak to the specifics but we've increased our resources as far as staffing goes uh with students with disabilities and with our e students I will say significantly over the past two to three years. Amanda, roughly three to four. Yeah. Can you talk about that, please? Sure. And so, uh, in addition to the staffing piece, so one of the things that we talked about, um, was an additional instructional coach for our English learners. And so, in addition
054to providing because that's our most rapidly growing subgroup. And so we need some more certified EL teachers in our district to provide learning and coaching and resources to our classroom teachers that are with the students all day long to teach them how to improve language acquisition within the classroom. And then because you approved as a board and another English learner instructional coach, we also have more capacity for those three ESL teachers that we have to provide some direct intervention to students who are struggling the most. So really looking at data and saying okay which are students that we can provide some of the coaching in the classroom for as one level which are some students that some of our ELSLAS or student learning assistants can work with and provide some intervention and then where is
055our data really stagnant where and usually looking at more of that fourth through sixth graders whose reading is plateaued even though they've been in country for a couple of years or who have some English proficiency now but their scores aren't reflecting that. So then having our ESL teachers work directly with those students to try to look at what those barriers are. Um so supporting us through with resources and finding creative ways to attract and retain staff I think is one thing. Um I think another thing like Kelly talked about is when Matt and Kelly are looking at universal curriculum and our teachers are piloting. Special ed is a is a service on top of general education and so is EEL support. And we can't solve the problem through intervention alone because it it got to
056be a problem because tier one didn't work for those students. But yet they're in tier one the majority of their day. And we can you just clarify what tier one tier one sure classroom instruction. So they're in the regular classroom instruction for the majority of their day and then they receive some intervention on top of that to look at their disability related needs. But not everything can be solved by intervention. Um and we can't just provide intervention all day long or they would be missing core curriculum thus widening the gap even further. So it's a it's a catch22. So when we look at how do we provide teachers with classroom teachers with professional development so that they can provide some of that intervention directly in the classroom in that tier one in that universal curriculum.
057How can we choose a resource that provides strategies that get at the full gamut for our struggling learners all the way up through also providing extension and that's really hard for our teachers. We've got phenomenal teachers but their their order is tall. Um, so I think another way again going back to how can the board help support the administration and attracting and retaining students. And so when Mr. Miller's department gets up here and talks about our our retention and compensation structure and all of that, I think that's critical so that we retain high quality staff um because it's a hard job. And then also, yeah, just supporting all of our efforts with mental health. Uh, getting those resources into schools because our students are coming to us with bigger problems and more more concerns and
058family challenges and that affects the classroom and it affects learning as well. Yeah. And I I do appreciate your comment, Matt. Um, you know, because we are held accountable to uh consistent growth over time. Uh the one ask that I would have for the board is exactly what you mentioned earlier is that there's a lot of moving parts actively occurring that pose a challenge to that that growth that's expected. We expect it. Uh but there's a lot of things happening uh with our student population that impacts that trajectory. And so we'll be looking at some of that data as part of my my own review and some of the board goals as well. And I just ask that you consider that when you are looking at that data. Uh and and again uh it's it's
059a very it's complex and uh you know yes if we were manufacturing a widget where the widget was the widget that was one thing but we're not dealing with widgets. We're dealing with students in a lot of different dynamics. So, uh, that would be just something to keep be mindful of, uh, as we look at that moving forward. Any other questions for our team? Thank you. We really appreciate the opportunity to get in front of you and be able to share the great things that are happening because there are a lot of great things. So, thank you for your support. Thank you. Okay. So, next we have our second read and then the approval of new policy 5411, third grade promotion and retention for atrisisk students. Do I have a motion? Yes. I move to
060approve um new policy 5411 third grade promotion and retention at risk students. I have a motion by Miss Crosby and a second by Mr. Zalinski. Is there any discussion? No discussion. Okay. Then all those in favor raise your right hand. Motion passes. Uh we have an action item from close session. I have a motion. I move to approve the employment services report as presented. Second. I have a motion by Miss Crosby, I'm sorry, Miss Bindler and a second by Miss Crosby to approve the employment services report. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. We have future meetings and dates. Uh board meetings are generally held here on Mondays uh beginning at 7 o'clock PM in conf conference room E um unless not unless noted otherwise. So our next one is June 23rd.
061We have one in July July 28th and then uh the one then in August coming up after that is August 11th. We don't have any important dates summertime guess it's summer break now. Um so then do I have a motion to adjurnn? I move to adjurnn. I have a motion by Miss Crosby and a second by Mr. Zinsky to adjurnn. All those in favor, raise your right hand. Motion passes. This meeting is adjourned.