Board of Education Meeting - March 3, 20025 (Part 1)

001the March 3rd 2025 Board of Education meeting is called to order I welcome everyone present the witch toop Public Schools will be the premier District of choice and Inspire each student and staff member to thrive and become future ready within the Greater Community this is a business meeting of the Board of Education and we are pleased that you have taken the time to join us all board members are present this evening please join me in a moment of silence thank you uh Lona uh first item Pledge of Allegiance Northwest High School Color Guard please rise for the presentation of the colors col you may post the colors thank you to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for One Nation God indivisible withy andice for all [Applause] thank you to

002the Northwest High School Color Guard Latona next item good news elementary and middle school screener growth welcome Holly and Amanda hanging out our clicker good evening superintendent beeld president Albert vice president McCrae Miller board I'm here tonight to celebrate dedicated dedicated wtto Public School staff and their students Holly and I have the privilege of introducing some teachers and teams tonight from all over our district that have shown growth towards our strategic plan goals both in elementary and middle school in reading and Mathematics and let them all come on down it's always a great start to a board meeting to recognize our staff so we're going to get started with our Elementary staff we really took a look at both a reading as well as cbmr growth we looked at teachers who had moved students out

003of risk categories we looked for teachers who had ambitious growth on those two screeners and I'm going to start with Ashton Palmore I wasn't sure if she was going to make it tonight um but she is at CMA May she's a third grade teacher and her students succeed because she knows exactly where they're at and tailors her instruction to meet their needs her classroom is welcoming while still maintaining high standards for her students but more importantly she has the highest standards set for herself and we're going to hold our Applause until we have recognized all of our teachers so Melinda Brown is our next teacher from mcum elementary her success can be credited to her intentional efforts to create a class Community where she holds all students to high expectations when you walk into her

004room you can feel the structure she has created while also maintaining an atmosphere that makes learning fun she ensures each student receives appr appropriate and differentiated instruction that promotes ambitious growth next we have a TW fur so we have Ashley CI Dean and Melissa Grier from OK Elementary so the fastbridge growth accomplished by Miss cedan third graders is a result of her dedication patience and unwavering belief in her students potential she's created an environment where learning is both challenging and rewarding and her ability to identify individual needs and provide tailored strategies for improvement was instrumental in helping raise test scores so with her tonight is Melissa grer this is a really special um thing for us Melissa was Ashley's long-term substitute guest staff um While She Was Out on maternity leave this year so when

005we emailed her principal her principal said yes but also can we also recognize her sub who picked up where she left off and went full force so we appreciate most of being here tonight and supporting Ashley students as well Deb Clark from Bostic this year third grade students have achieved exceptional growth setting new records compared to past years in Deb's class and this success is largely due to her efforts her classroom is characterized by consistent expectations and structure her patient and kind demeanor along with her innate ability to connect ensures that every student feels valued which supports their remarkable academic progress then we have Carrie Pierce from airheart Environmental Magnet Elementary she's a future leader in our district she's consistent and chooses not to settle for complacency in her students she pushes students to stay

006engaged and utilizes the aart magnet theme to enhance learning she knows where they are academically and is able to share details with her colleagues as they all work to improve their grade results at aart and we have Maria Magdaleno Maria is a newcomer teacher at Washington Elementary she sets very high expectations for her students and she takes her own experiences as a newcomer herself from Mexico and applies this to her student learning she sets goals to integrate her students into the regular education classroom from the onset with her previous experience as a regular education classroom teacher she is a pro at bridging both decoding and comprehension for Student Success so those were our elementary growth teachers [Applause] all right so as we shift to middle school we identified our three top middle schools on um

007moving the most students from the risk categories to hitting the Mitch bark on the a maath in their e8th grade students this year so first off we have wells alternative Middle School Mr lawrenson is here Wells has made an intentional effort to increase their focus on academic success for students students and helping students believe in their ability to succeed which at um their school has been a great shift for them they had a 7.7% Improvement next up is me Middle School we have a team here from there they improved 99.9% me Middle School teachers have worked to focus core and intervention supports to align instruction to meet the needs of their students and work as a team while also welcoming a large number of new students to their building this year and last but not

008least is EI Academy which I don't think we have anyone here tonight they had a 14.3% Improvement in the eth grade students and they've sought to intentionally support each student where they are at even though that can be challenging in the virtual environment their staff seeks to engage students regularly which again looks quite different in the virtual setting so our three middle schools great job thank you for helping us recognize them tonight they do a lot of hard work absolutely thank you guys very [Applause] much Lona next item award-winning magnet schools welcome you want me wait for everybody to come down or you want me start we can go ahead and start you can call your people down uh good evening president Albert board members and superintendent beeld uh it's my pleasure to share with

009you uh good news about two award-winning magnets in our district magnet schools of America is a national nonprofit professional association that we belong to and guides our work in the magnet Department every year they award merit awards to top magnet schools in the nation um I've experienced helping to write for these Awards when I was out of school and I also helped some of our magnets schools right uh and uh I've also judged submissions working for magnet schools of America and read uh submissions from hundreds of magnet schools around the nation uh so given this experience on both sides of the process I'd like to stress that this is not an honor that is bestowed on just anyone that these schools really are um earning them uh our first Magnet School airheart Environmental Magnet has

010been named a National Merits excuse me has been named a National Merit School of Distinction for the time aart has been a magnet since 1977 and has a core group of teachers so dedicated to the theme that it almost runs itself in some capacities however as strong as the program is principal malot has significantly raised the standard in his tenure there he lives and breathes the theme and that has evident to anyone he talks to or bugs incessantly to get what he needs to enhance his program to receive one of these merit awards schools must submit a detailed application explaining their integration of the magnet theme their implementation of innovative programs and instruction strategies and their dedication to leveraging and celebrating diversity with an unwavering commitment to academic standards uh Magnus schools America has five

011pillars in which they base all its work on it's diversity Innovative curriculum and professional development academic Excellence leadership and family and Community Partnerships these pillars must be reflected in the application narrative and must depict a truly integrated experience for students these schools are judged and scored on their demonstrated ability to decrease achievement disparity among demographic subgroups promotee racial and socioeconomic diversity provide rigorous integrated curricula and instruction and create strong family and Community Partnerships that enhance the school's magnet theme in addition to the merit award of Distinction there's also the Merit Award of Excellence uh which is only awarded to the best of the best magnet schools that score just about perfect on the application and I'm excited to share that Alice and Traditional Magnet has received this honor for the second year in a row

012uh they have also previously w the merit award for distinction three times so this is their fifth time getting a merit award total two of Excellence Allison has had four principles in seven years which sometimes make it difficult for magnet school to sustain a collective vision and continually refine and improve the theme in similar circumstances at different schools that we've seen uh whatever magnet momentum exists typically gets lost in leadership transition and that's no one's fault it's just you know one principle starts one thing and and has a vision then someone else comes in and may not be awar Magnet or or just you know so it's kind of starting over from uh ground one sometimes but from Ground Zero sometimes but with Allison um like airheart the their dedicated staff has invested in the

013Schools traditional ethos and all four of those principles uh have been able to jump seamlessly and help lead the way in further strengthening the magnet culture there so we're really proud of Alison and aart for getting these Awards [Applause] all right thank you congratulations and thank you for your hard work and dedication K Lona next item CTE Career and Technical education outstanding senior Awards welcome thank you president Albert vice president McCrae Miller superintendent bfield and members of the board Tim Hamlin executive director of College and Career Readiness and it is my privilege this evening to share some good news for my world Career and Technical education from this point on I'll just refer to it as CTE for those in the audience that may not be familiar with it but earlier this evening we recognized

014and honored the 2024 2025 CTE pathway award winners during a reception here at North High in the cafeteria the CTE pathway award recognizes students that have completed three CTE credits and demonstrated outstanding performance in the Mastery of competencies pathway participation CTE participation and leadership in an approved CTE pathway the selection process includes teacher nominations eligibility verification and student responses the winners were determined by the pathway Specialists that are members of the office of College and Career Readiness each winner was presented an award that looks like this one here that we had made in in District so they're pretty cool um a certificate and they are also being depicted here in a slideshow I also have included the nominees from all of the different high schools obviously we can't have eight kids in one pathway be

015selected as the winner but we want to recognize the students that were nominated so um we are certainly proud of all of the students that are nominated and we know that the knowledge and the skills that they have learned through their Career and Technical education classes will serve them in their future endeavors that's the kids but none of their success would have been possible without some outstanding teachers as well so if I may I want to share a little good news about our teachers um first Eric Genta was recognized as the 2024 Kansas restaurant and Hospitality Association prart teacher of the year and that's a pretty big deal when you consider how many districts there are in the state of Kansas so we're very proud of Eric Joanna farmer last year was a Kansas teacher

016of the year finalist Aaron Hazelwood at East High School was the 2024 skills USA adviser of the year he was the 2024 a GC buildup Kansas program of the year and last week he was awarded a national award bestowed on only five Educators in the United States of America I am not at Liberty to announce what that award actually is who sponsored it what he got I will say he's buying lunch next time um but I think March 18th is when that will be revealed but anyway again outstanding students phenomenal Educators um CTE is a it is absolutely it's a pathway for many young people that get connected to their schools you've heard me talk about in the past graduation um 67% of the kids that drop out of high school make that decision before

017Thanksgiving of their ninth grade year so if we can get them hooked in into a Career and Technical education pathway and it's not just welding anymore it is high tech stuff and and even medical students there were two students both at appli had very similar um application resumés scores one student was able on their essay to talk about their personal experiences they had having served as an EMT that they earned going through a tech career in technical education program so I love it CTE is awesome it's new to me really but I've enjoyed every second of it I appreciate the opportunity to have it to provide the programs for our kids um one other thing that the kids did get tonight they were treated to some cookies um that were made by our culinary students

018at woodw West and Heights so if you do not mind I'm going to just go by you can have one than you I I want two thank you thank you Mr [Applause] Hamlin Latona next item 2024 Scholastic art Awards welcome Sean thank you Lona good evening everyone I want to start by thanking Marsha scurfield Visual Arts curriculum coach for coordinating our slideshow and to all WPS Visual Arts faculty who submitted uh incredible digital images on the screen as I am sharing this year's Scholastic updates please enjoy our award-winning artwork the Scholastic art and writing Awards which is the oldest and most prestigious recognition program for Creative teenagers in the United States are presented by The Alliance For Young Artists and writers the alliance is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to identify students with exceptional

019artistic talent and present their remarkable work to the world through Scholastic art Awards the eastern Kansas Scholastic art Awards exhibition showcases selected artworks created by middle school and high school students from 70 Kansas counties the awards give students opportunities for recognition exhibition publication and scholarships participants supported by their Visual Arts teachers and other community members create and submit their best works of art each work is reviewed by a panel of Arts Professionals for originality technical skill and the emergence of personal Vision this year 21 19 individual submissions were submitted for the eastern Kansas Scholastic Art Award of those [Music] 2119 490 student Works were selected for the show and as was pointed out earlier that's only about two artworks selected for the show for every nine artworks submitted of those 490 Works selected for the

02070 Kansas counties of those 490 Works 221 entries were from the Witchita Public Schools this represents 154 High School student artists Guided by 28 WPS Visual Arts instructors representing all seven WPS comprehensive high schools and Northeast Magnet which for the fourth year in a row I call these the Elite 8 this year's District winning artwork is featured in all categories honorable mention silver key gold key and American Vision nominees and for the second consecutive year if anybody wants to give a drum roll 45% of the 70 County eastern Kansas Scholastic art awards are from the witcha public schools this statistic is worth celebrating I also want to recognize others that continue ually support our students parents family members school and District staff and administration and of course tonight strategic communication Alicia Allen and her wonderful

021colleagues organized tonight's excellent reception and those CTE cookies are scrumptious finally many thanks to the board and District leadership for once again supporting our witch toop Public Schools excellent representation at this year's Scholastic art Awards and if anyone here tonight would like to see more art you could can view the exhibition on display at Mark Arts 1307 North Rock Road 13th and rock until March 29th when the closing ceremony will be held and numerous college scholarships will be awarded last year an unprecedented $3.4 million were awarded in college scholarships and we know we'll have many WPS offers coming but for now please join me in one final round of applause for our award-winning students and their teachers thank you thank you Sean Lona next item United teachers of Wich welcome Katie good evening um good

022evening president Albert vice president McCrae Mill superintendent beeld and distinguished Boe members tonight I'd like to address the newly launched Department of Education website form that encourages parents to report school districts for teaching certain content spe specifically critical theory Rogue sex education and divisive ideologies the press release promoting this form includes a statement from the co-founder of moms for Liberty she asserts that these concerns have been dismissed and urges parents to document what she calls a betrayal of public education she further claims that this web page is a move to restore parental controls over education I've been in witow public schools for 20 years and I can say with absolute certainty that our teachers in usd259 are not betraying our students our Educators dedicate their time energy and passion to ensuring that every single child

023receives a high quality education one rooted in critical thinking academic excellence and the skills needed to thrive but let's be clear vague and politically charged phrases like critical theory Rogue sex education and divisive ideologies serve only to stoke fear and confusion what we do know is that our teachers follow our state standards we expect and trust that this school board will support our Educators in ensuring that history is taught accurately that our debate and speech teachers can foster critical thinking through discussion that programs like second step in human growth and development remain part of our curriculum and that our teachers are never punished for teaching critical thinking skills to our students our teachers show up every single day to do what's right for kids they deserve respect not baseless accusations for attending to State Standards

024we know that when parents and teachers are Partners our students Thrive our classrooms should be spaces for learning not arenas for political agendas that Foster the very division that this policy appears intended to create thank you thank you [Applause] Katie Lona next item service employees International Union uh I do not see a representative from SEIU next item public Communications so for public Communications we want to thank you guys for joining us tonight if you have signed up for public comment you will have three minutes to speak and we kindly ask that you acknowledge your allotted time according to the timer displayed on the screen we encourage you to share your thoughts openly and honestly but we ask that your remarks remain focused on school related matters and are respectful and constructive the board will listen

025to your input but will probably not respond during this meeting however we are listening carefully and may follow up as appr appropriate so we welcome our first Speaker Chloe house is Chloe present tonight our next speaker Dave fish welcome thank you yeah there you go good evening Board of Education representatives and District leadership team I'm Dave fish this is my wife Marty we're here to address the failed facility master plan the rejected two 22525 bond proposal and our strong opposition to the Clos of okay Elementary the board's responsibility as elected officials the Boe must act on the outcome of the rejected Bond plan he had the authority and responsibility to develop a new plan with better communication transparency and the use of available resources the time to start revisions is now one year ago the

026Boe voted to close Six schools citing budget deficits aging buildings and declining enrollment the closure process moved fast with little public involvement after closing hadly the Boe allowed a final walkthrough two months later the facility master plan approved in August proposed rebuilding seven new schools and closing four more including OK Elementary opposing uh we along with area Educators in our neighborhoods strong oppose an okay closure the plan was fast-tracked with Ohio consultants and local Builders pushing forclosures while constructing new schools the claim that ok Elementary must close regardless of the bond vote is flawed the rejected plan means the plan must be Revisited facts about okay extensive Renovations in 22 8 made okay a modern well equipped school it's not outdated does not fit the 60-year-old narrative used to Justified closures OK Elementary has a

027history of academic Excellence serving gifted and special needs students with strong support okay could be considered for math reading science magnet designation instead of closure OK has served its neighborhood location for nearly 150 years families have settled in the area expecting long-term stability and didn't expect closure talk and buzzing children elsewhere some families and educators are considering a move to other districts for stability teachers uh WSU survey found two-thirds of the wit teachers believe the district is headed in the wrong direction and 82% of those surveyed said their building was a good place to work Educators and administrators were among the strongest opponents that I talked with thank you Mr Fish Bond pardon thank thank your a lot of time um is up if you have a typed uh statement um you're welcome to I

028have two sentences for closing go for it closing statement okay Elementary has been the community Cornerstone for 150 years at its cow we urge the board to stop its closure and instead provide the leadership that this District its schools and its families deserve thank you very much there are also uh PowerPoint presentations for all of you we appreciate goes into details we appreciate your information Lona next speaker Jeff Janice thank you welcome um thank you for allowing me to get up here and speak and and um I recognize the president and the board members I appreciate it it's um I'm up here about this I also um you have my information but I'm a okay PTA person uh former parent site counsel I was on Judy George's Bond team in 2000 that um got it

029done so I'm not against anything to do with schools whatsoever all my kids have gone through WPS so I'm here to talk about the school and my perspective is okay is the best school not to close we've had all these upgrades in between with these Bond issues and we have there's some issues in there that could be worked on to make things things better but we also have the capacity 450 to handle growth uh with consolidation of schools uh the location it's pretty you know you jump two feet over one way you're headed south on West jump another block over you're getting on the bypass for school buses the site allows for expansion into the playground field which we didn't do in 2000 because the Architects wanted to split it and we said well how

030are we going to manage recess out there we're going to have two teams we told them no we flip we flipped the the team Judy's team flipped the site around to match what is there today we did that because that's what the school needed um anyhow the site also allows for bus capability off of West Street West Street's fast moving but there are other schools I believe it's Allison use the Cuttin routes for the buses and out with I think a pretty decent safety record um on the other hand closure then what happens do we demolish a perfectly good building uh it's not one of the 80 to 100 year old specials that we're talking about but do we demolish it with capacity that needs a little TLC on that place and that's it it's

031got special needs it's got the 150 or 160 mph multi-purpose room already uh that was originally done in 2000 or you know we to sell it to a a developer for a dollar or so and they come in and decide they're going to put a 50 unit rental Housing Development there which will kill that neighborhood it will kill valuations it will kill folks coming in with children as well from our perspective um what else maintenance it's been said many times and by the way all this data and if I say a number it comes out of WPS literature presentations whatever none are made up by myself but maintenance it's been said these buildings have not been maintained or maintenance has been deferred well that was a key item in 2000 as well and our perspective

032was get those windows in get the AC start maintaining this stuff and we'll be good for a long long time which is our our goal on anything get the most paying for the buck um thank you sir but anyhow we've heard that there's 200 million to 464 million depending on which number you read of deferred maintenance am I done yeah ah shs okay you're welcome to contact the board members by email or share any information that you have um further okay thank you very much for being here this evening and speaking to us Lona next speaker ulyses D shaver seeing none John Williams next speaker see none Francis Jackson genevia Holloway welcome um I'm here concerning the teachers I'm not going to name name any teachers or any schools but I don't know whether you're

033aware that we have so many teachers that's leaving the system some is retired but some is leaving because of behavior of children in schools are you aware of that and the other thing is that uh some of the schools uh teachers tell me that the staff is not supported of them you know when you having behavior problem in the classroom you can't teach the other kids so if you keep sending kids stood off and they keep sending them back to every you don't send them so are you aware of these things that's happening and would you please check into it and see what we can do about it so this is K through five we should not be having these kind of problems in school so I know it's a parent problem but we need

034to get together and see how we going to handle it and save our teachers and see why them they left and what we can do to get them back so I thank you and I pray that you will listen and pay attention and see why so many teachers is leaving the schools and what is the reason and see what we can do to get some of them back and see what we can do about the behavior problem in these classroom and I'm repeat again K through five and I'm a witness three or four years ago before the virus I volunteered in the school so I know how it was then so I can't even imagine what it's going to be like now CU I was with reading kids two or three times a week and

035a fourth grader come in there at my table and flip my table and they didn't do anything just sent him out and brought him back back there back there the next day so that was four or five years ago so just think about what it's like today and I would say if you all could visit the school see for yourself what's going on in the schools and see why our teachers is leaving and what we can do to get them back and why number one is why they left in the beginning so I just ask you to do that we're going to be praying for you all that our school would be better thank you very much I have one last speaker Char next speaker Charles McAfee or do you want to use this welcome

036my name is Charles M I'm 92 years old almost 93 but more importantly I'm here to talk about lower school you have been passed out some individual PRS I want to tell you what they are if you start at the bottom where the road Eng in that's 13th Street the top is 17th Street the Overture is right there what I want to call your attention to is the historic district I designed all of the early buildings in here down at the bottom there's a baseball park called Robert Thurman he was the first African-American to ever go into the professional baseball teams right in front of that there is a seven or eight foot tall um marble structure it's called the double v it was started by a bunch of ladies older than me who are

037no longer here the double v stood for VIs victory in Europe and victory at home early early witchar civil rights you go on a little further up one of the guys who was one of your most dedicated employees Charles Goose Dy while he was a teacher at lature used to bring tennis records out at recess and teach the kids how to play tennis Charles Do's Tennis Center 25 years Regional tennis tournaments are there in his name right outside the East door of lire school is a place called McAfee pool named after Charles mcae on up the way I'm going to tell you a little more about a couple more of these on up the way is the addition $10 million addition that is being constructed right now by the city of Witchita named after former

038mayor Carl Brewer go further on up to 17th Street most of you heard about the Jackie Robinson statue being stolen and dismembered now what I'm going to tell you about the rest of this all of the professional football are baseball teams sent thousands of dollars in here to redo that so this area has all kinds of national money serious National money the macafee pool was one of only eight awards given by the Ford Foundation I made a trip out of wit one day picked up my daughter who runs our Atlanta office we went into New York came right back I had both the co and the flu that's what's wrong with me Mr M uh let me just finish the fort Foundation put up money to upgrade the pool along with the Getty Foundation the

039two biggest organizations in the country that do that what we want to do is to round surround ler School with bar Sanders field to the South and all the rest went McAdams Park McAdams was named after Emerson McAdams a former police officer who became the manager when I was a little boy of this park I went to the city council got that name changed what we want you to do is not do anything with L school without talking to aou group of us sitting up there and over there and over there cuz we're very interested my wife was a student as a little girl there but more importantly she was a principal of that same school closed the school on Monday on on Friday and she open Beach Elementary on on Monday that was our

040vacation I thank you very much for your time please don't do anything to leure without contacting this great group of people we have all kinds of Concepts to do things with it we thank you for being here Mr McAfee and um you're welcome to reach out to me I'd be happy to be happy to sit down with you guys so thank you very much we appreciate you being here this evening Latona next item strategic plan goal one progress monitoring High School interim goal one welcome Lauren all right Lauren Dr Hatfield is rolling solo looks like tonight um this is one of our interum goal updates about AC and act work keys and I'll pass it off before I get started last time they told me I had a booming voice and I need to move

041the mic back so if they are waving at you up there it's probably about me you're getting a thumbs up okay good excellent right good evening president Albert vice president McCrae Miller superintendent beeld members of the board I'm excited to be with you be with you tonight to give you an update on goal number one interim goal specifically for the high school you're actually actually going to get interim goal updates for all of the levels but Holly and Amanda follow me with the update for uh middle school and Elementary School we're going to pull the high school goal by itself uh because it's very different than what the interim goals are for elementary and middle so um it's been a minute hopefully we've all slept at least a couple times since the last time that

042we talked about this so want to give you just a reminder about what this is about and then update you on where we are so our big overarching goal for the Strategic plan and goal number one is about increasing graduation rate and to increase the graduation rate from 79.2 to 85% by 2029 so just as a grounder what I speak about um what Holly and Amanda are going to speak about in the presentation following mine all falls underneath this academic achievement goal so so everything that we're talking about from now forward all drives to increasing the graduation rate so under that there are interim goals and the high school interim goal is about the Act and the ACT work keys so the specific High School interim goal is to increase the percent of unique students

043scoring a 21 or higher on the act or scoring a silver or higher on the ACT work keys from 34.2% to 37.7% by the spring of 2025 um we are here in the spring of 2025 and so we need to know did we hit that 37.7% I will tell you um we will always kind of get a backflow of data from the act and so that 34.2% that was set last spring after we got the backflow of data from the ACT through the summertime that actually ended up being a bit lower than 34 um. 2% and actually was about 33.8% um but we didn't feel like we needed to adjust 37.7 because the x value or the starting value actually was a little bit lower than 34.2 it was 33.8 but we still wanted to

044hit the 37.7 so um you're going to see a number later and you're like why isn't that 34.2 it's because we got ACT scores from over the summer that were connected to the class of 2024 that changed that data a little bit so we'll update you on that so all right so there's an or statement in that goal part of it's about the ACT part of it's out the ACT work keys so I thought it might be easiest if we talk act data and then we talk act work keys data and then we put them both together um to try to level set and understand the the two different tests a lot of people are really familiar with the ACT less people are familiar with the ACT work key so that does gives us a

045chance to balance out both so we're going to start with the ACT um and give you some information just about percentage of kids in Witchita public schools in the classes of 23 24 and 25 that have chosen to take the ACT uh wit to Public Schools began offering the ACT free to all students in the spring of their junior year in the 2019 2020 school year so we've been offering this opport to our Junior students just last week our class of 26 Juniors had their act day um obviously their data is not included in this um because that we it just happened but um we have that testing day every year now some students don't choose to test on that testing day they may choose to test on Saturdays or they might take our district

046testing day plus test on Saturdays those sort things all of the scores from any testing date are included in our data as long as the school as long as long as the kids report them to us uh we get them automatically if they're on our testing day it's up to the kid to report the scores to us on the Saturday test so we actually don't get all the Saturday test data for the act so um we're holding steady right around 72% of our Juniors um are choosing to take the ACT and I say Juniors because most students take it their junior year and that's when we offer it for free but these are classes of so these are class of 25 would be students who graduated last year 24 the year before that 23 the

047year before that okay so here is our data on for the ACT on the postsecondary asset percentage so in order to get a post-secondary asset which our class of 28 kids have to get at least two of those to graduate from high school that's the new graduation requirements but we're trying to condition everybody to this post-secondary asset language um you have to earn a 21 or higher on the ACT to earn that asset that's why 21 plus is what's in the goal um this past year we had 438 students in the class of 2025 so far earn a 21 or higher so you can see that's just over 18 and a half percent of our kids that take the test earn the postsecondary asset um we do not have average scores for 2025 uh the

048state will not publish that data until well after the class of 25 graduates um but something that I think is cool to see in the data is that massive jump in percentage who earn to 21 or higher and our massive jump in average score um from 23 to 24 um what's interesting is we jumped by almost a point and the state average on the ACT dropped by 02 um so we definitely um made some pretty substantial improvements especially compared to the rest of the state for our average score in 2024 so we don't have an average score yet um and I wanted to wait until the state publishes that number um to until we gave it to you uh especially you know when you we have our own ways of calculating it um but again

049we don't get all the scores and so but the state of Kansas does and so they they have a way of parceling that data out and I want to make sure we're comparing to comparing um a few things that I want to let you know uh about the ACT is this April they're going to start changing the act so there have been no changes to the ACT for a very long time uh handful of years ago they Aver they added an optional writing portion um but I want to be clear that when 2026 data comes it's not going to be the same ACT test um that most of us in this room probably took um so let me just walk through those changes just so that you're aware um and this is going to be

050something that we're going to have to talk um with our students and families about as well so currently there are four SE there are four tests four sections that are mandatory on the ACT there's reading there's math there's English and there's science those are the current four um starting in April the science will become optional so that will not be counted in the composite score anymore because it's an optional test so now they will only be averaging English math and reading starting in April for your composite ACT score there is a very big difference than act previously um act scored on a 36 point scale and to get your composite score what you see up there as a 15.9 or a 16.7 they just average your scores together on the section so right now they're

051averaging four sections together together to get your composite score starting in April they're going to average three sections together to get your composite score okay um the length of the test will also shorten obviously the length in the test will shorten because the science part is taken out but they're also shortening the reading in English sections so right now it takes about 195 minutes to take the ACT starting in April it's going to take about 125 minutes to take the ACT so the test is going to get shorter in terms of length and it's also going to get shorter in terms of number of questions so you will get so the kids will have more time per question starting in April compared to previous ACS so there's going to be about 44 less questions in

052the English math s or English math reading sections added together than there are currently right now on the ACT um and then the math section right now there's five answer choices for every single question on the math test it'll go down to four so that's that's another chance lots of changes are going to start happening in April to the ACT test it is still nationally normed it is still going to be scored on a scale of 1 to 36 it is still going to be based on act college and career career Readiness benchmarks they're still going to be averaging your scores on the mandatory sections together to get your composite score and the level that you have to achieve to be uh College ready is going to remain the same so let's talk about why

053it's a 21 okay um on each of the tests there is a number that they've come up with through studies and if you are a nerd and curious I can send you the study via email because I have it um about how they created these benchmarks but they've done studies to figure out if you hit this ACT score you have a 75% chance or higher of getting a c or higher on a college course with no no intervention no remediation no tutoring no nothing you could walk into a college course tomorrow and get a 75% chance or higher getting a CER higher so that's what these mean the English one is 18 so each of the little tests have their own number so the English number is an eight the English Benchmark is an 18

054the math benchmark is a 22 the reading benchmark is a 22 the science benchmark is a 23 in the current test if you average those 21 composite gets you you could walk into college tomorrow and they're saying look you've got a 75% higher or higher chance of getting a c or higher in the classes that you're about to walk into in college with no tutoring no remediation no intervention so that's why the postsecondary asset is a 21 plus and that's why we pick 21 plus so just wanted to do some level setting of I'm going to come back at some point with more act data and we're not going to be comparing the same act tests that these three are they're still going to be nationally Norm scored similarly but it's not going to be

055Apples to Apples starting with the class of not really 26 because the class of 26 just took their big it's really not going to be till the class of 27 when that data really starts showing up but if you've got a kid in the class of 26 who in June takes the act on a Saturday the new version is out so just wanted to give you some level setting related to to the act all right let's talk about work keys um all right the work keys here's our percentage tests percentage of kids tested um we offer the work keys for free to all senior students in the fall of their senior year so this fall we had 2,273 of our seniors came to school on the day we did this test and took the test

056um which is a significant Improvement in the last couple of years this is only the third year we have offered the work keys for free to rest students the first year we did that was the fall of 23 so this is very new data a very new test and a test that people still aren't really quite sure what it does um which means we have work to do but I am very happy to see that giant Improvement um shout out to our high schools for helping communicate the value of our students showing up and taking the test on our testing day in October all right so let's talk about how many kids earn the post-secondary asset okay we are holding steady at right around 40% of students earning the asset um which because we had

057a significant higher number of kids take it means a significant higher number of kids earned the asset here's why that data is kind of neat typically when you massively expand your group of people that take the test the achievement in that test drops because you've instantly doubled for easy math it's not really double but let's call it double the number because that take it right typically you will see a performance drop what is a fascinating thing to me is we had 30% more kids take the test 22 right% and we still had about 40% of our kids earn the asset now do we obviously want that 40% to continue Drive higher sure but that is an interesting piece of data um to note uh because work keys isn't as familiar to everyone again let's just

058go through the test there are three sections on the work keys I will also say we had quite a quite a time with the work keys this year there the the testing site crashed on the day we took the tests so we had to do like some retests and some things so I actually think our students probably would have done a little bit better but we had to uh their testing environment was disrupted on this day and our schools did as best of a job as they could about facilitating the test when the the the test site crashed for about an hour on the morning that they were in taking the test so it was it it was a little nerve-wracking uh but it's uh there's three there's three sections there's applied math there's workplace

059documents and there's graphic literacy those are the things they test in the work keys and the what the work keys is designed to do is how prepared are you to enter the workforce and have the job skills that you need to be successful successful in that job so the ACT is more about are you prepared to go into a college class and be successful the ACT work keys are are you prepared to enter the workforce or college because you'll go to the workforce at some point and be prepared with the skills that you need to be successful that's what the work keys is it is scaled on a score of 65 to 90 it doesn't start at zero you get a 65 to a 90 and then they take that 65 to 90 and they

060change it into a level which is a 0 through seven unlike the ACT you don't average your scores together right so the ACT you average your scores average the four in the work keys you have to get a certain level on all three sections to qualify for that post-secondary asset so I'll give you an example um a bronze level which is not a postsecondary asset you have to get a three or higher on all three tests to be able to qualify for a bronze so it's not an average it's you've got to get that number on all three tests which is different than an average U to get a silver or higher which is what the post-secondary asset is you got to get a four or higher on all three there's a gold level you've

061got to get a five or higher on all three and then there's a platinum level you've got to get a six or higher on all three so it's different scoring mechanisms than the ACT um and the reason why silver plus is the post-secondary asset so a bronze level it their their research shows you were prepared for 16% of the jobs you can go in 16% of the jobs you have the skills you need for 16% of jobs to be successful in those jobs 16% is pretty low which is why bronze is not the post-secondary asset the difference between a bronze and a silver is massive silver is 67% it's a massive jump so if you have a silver or higher so that's 40% of our kids 67% of the jobs you're ready to walk into

062that job and have all the skills you need to be successful in that job 67% then the jump to gold gold is 93% of jobs and then Platinum is 99% of jobs so it's this huge massive jump between those levels so work keys is not as familiar to everybody we have to keep talking about what the work keys is and why it's valuable um and you get a certification hey I got a silver or higher certification on the AC work keys that means something to employers that we used to not have like a am I job ready um we have certifications for different things but this is just a general I'm job ready um so that's what the work keys is so that's just a little level setting on here's our act data here's our

063act work keys data let's put them together on that on that or statement shall we all right so in um we had two 2527 students that took either the work keys or the act or both I had to take at least one okay 351 of those students got a 21 or higher on the ACT 263 of them got a silver or higher on the work keys 766 got either the act or the work keys or both right so how do we create our percentage that's in the goal it's the 766 divided by the 2527 right so that's where the 3.31% comes from so the first year we took this with kids right 2023 is the first year we offered work keys to kids less than 50% of our seniors took it 3.31% earned an asset

064last year this is where the original goal had a 34.2 number in the 20124 line but we had some backflow of act data um from the state so it was actually 33.81 this year through the data that we have right now with the class of 2025 39.1% of the class of 2025 has earned the postsecondary asset and either the act or the work keys or both and if you remember earlier I circled a number that was 37.7 and that number is higher than 37.7 so we've got some choices to make uh later this summer do we raise it or do we go after something else in that High School goal those are things that we'll get to decide later whether we raise it or whether we go out go after something else we still want

065to drive success on the ACT and on the ACT work keys so let's talk about how we're going to do that thinking about okay all right um something that Holly may or may not talk to you about later um but um our learning Services team has been working really hard on language comprehensions and how what we can do for language comprehension in the secondary level uh because content starts to become king when you move into the secondary world and we would like to work on language comprehension but it doesn't matter what you teach right we want a language comprehension uh routine that helps the math teacher and helps the PE teacher and helps the music teacher Etc so um our learning Services team um connected to the letters work and the science of reading has

066developed a structured literacy vocabulary routine and we are going to roll this out in the uh 25 26 school year so very excited about that um language comprehension will help everything and everything you teach has language in it and so we're very excited about that opportunity so lots more to come um on that um and I don't want to take away any of the amazing things Holly may or may not share um either tonight or in the future so number two is we need to keep sharing the relevance and value of the ACT work keys with students staff and families it is still new on the scene we still need to keep talking about it um because there's still a whole lot of people that are like what is this right and I think we

067were a able to incentivize kids uh to show up on that day but I think we need to do a better job of matching the incentive with some intrinsic motivation of oh okay that's what that's for and that's why that's valuable we we have more work to do there for sure the third one um we need to talk about the changes that are coming to the act with student staff and families as well um there's a lot goes into preparing to sit and sitting um for those National standardized test TS and it's going to look and feel different I think for a long time we've kind of been able to rest on our Laurels maybe on the ACT because it has been but now that it's changing our communication game has got a step up

068related to that so our students and families are prepared as possible going into that test and then last but not least um we use advocacy for a variety of reasons and um we would like to create a score analysis and debrief lesson for both the Act and the AC work keys through advocacy um we have a ACT Testing day in the spring of junior year we know about when we get the results we could put plug in an advocacy lesson about the ACT score debriefing analysis and what does it mean and what might you need to do if you were this close um to earning that postsecondary asset uh hot off the presses um the state also might provide us a a couple hundred extra free licenses um for the act starting next year so

069we might be able to say Timmy Timmy my man you were so close to getting that post-secondary asset you want to take it again I got a free license for you so that you can take it again um so we're looking at how we could use that and then same thing for the work keys we know when the kids take it we offer it in October we know when we're going to get the results we get the results of that very quickly let's plug in an advocacy lesson for the seniors so they can get their scores and really understand what does this mean how do I put it on my resume how do I talk to people about it um those are things that build innate value in the tests for kids um so that

070there's a higher desire for the kids to intrinsically to do better on the assessments so um excited uh about the data that we've seen and excited about the progress we can continue to make uh for act and act work keys and happy to answer any questions that you have so I just want to a couple comments in closing and i' you you might have heard me say some of this before but I I think it's worth reiterate ating around act specifically um you've seen since 2020 in the state of Kansas a decrease in the average score for kids um o overall in the state as far as scores for the ACT at that same time you've seen a um doubling almost of participation so when you compare state to state specifically on act those states

071that have very low participation I.E they're only testing kids who know they're going to college around 30% of kids their act average score is is pretty high right we are trying to test every kid that's really our goal we're up to I mean those numbers are good in this in the 70s um and there's more that take it than that the way Lauren explained that did we capture that but um I think it's important to know um and part of the philosophy behind why is the same reason we want every kid to fill out a FAFSA because you may fill out a FAFSA and realize you have a route to go to college that you didn't realize was there before you may take an act and realize I'm academically ready to go to college and

072I didn't think I was um another thing is these are averages we're talking about big clumps of kids so is it true that if you get a 20 on the ACT you will fail at college no of course not I mean that that isn't true so keep that in mind sometimes the narrative around these things is um you know if we have 40% of kids that get either the work keys or the act the postsecondary asset that means 60% are failing which couldn't be F further from the truth so in the recent conversations around achievement that we've been hearing uh around the bond campaign that was the implication that if you didn't score proficient you were failing um and not that that is not a true assumption um I also want to say um our

073district uh Lauren mentioned it but our district average jumped uh almost a full point this last year um it's been kind of teetering since uh Co and we aren't we're almost back to pre-co numbers um but the the Gap the distance between the state average in the district average um has never been smaller since 2017 so in a lot of ways we're closing that Gap with the state a if the state average is our goal and we want to get all of our buildings and all of our kids up to the state average um we're closer to that than we have been in the last eight years um which says a lot about the direction we're headed um I I love the priorities and the the strategies about moving forward especially with vocabulary routine I

074think that is heading in the right direction so um I just wanted to Pride a little bit of that bigger picture context for some of these things um because I do feel like this these tests are a much more valid measure of what a kid knows and is able to do than the one-time State assessment that they take their sophomore year um th this really indicates if a kid is ready for college and ready to be successful and ready for the workforce and I would end by saying this this is also a really good reality check for kids right that if I think I'm College Bound or I think I'm ready for the workforce and I get I get you know clear data that says oh I've got more work to do um especially with

075the work keys you can really research any career and it will tell you that one through seven scale that Lauren talked about if you want to be a botanist it'll give you on the three areas of the test where you need to be to be able to be a successful botanist um so as kids dream and as kids think think about their future um they can also you know either I always say you either change what you're doing or change what you want um so as a kid if I want to be a blank and my scores show that I'm here I need to change what I'm doing I need to work harder to get up to that level to to to achieve that or I change what I'm doing I want to go a

076different route in life so um these these tools really should be conversational back to our advocacy uh I mean I think that's years down the road but that's really where we want to get with this is teachers having conversations with kids about where do you want to be in your future and what is what do your achievement show that you're on track to be able to do or not do so great presentation very good thank you Kelly thank you Dr Hatfield for your presentation Kathy that was a very educational tool and I think there's been a misconception with these kinds of figures out in our community so I'm really glad that you were able to describe it in a lay way that we can understand it could you define what a unique student is yeah

077so there are we don't want to count the kid twice if they've taken both tests so right so if you've you took the Act and the work keys we don't want you to count you count you twice in the denominator because that's messing the math up right so unique students are kids that took either the act or the work keys or they took both and do they have to take both both at the same time or can they take one their junior year and well I didn't do as good as I wanted to I'm going to take the other one my senior year yeah so typically most kids take the ACT their junior year but you can choose whenever to take it we offer the act for free on our ACT Testing Day in February

078of their junior year um we offer that to all of our students we encourage all of our Juniors to attend um that day um but there are Saturday tests that they can take the AC that's part of the reason why that number changed is because we had that back flow of act data that we needed to get uh from from the state because there were kids still taking the ACT well into their senior year um late in their senior year trying to maybe maybe there's a scholarship they needed that they they needed to take that act one more time um something like that so you can take it many times um work keys there are National work keys days but it is just less popular because it's so new to the scene so it hasn't

079picked up that Steam so for our work keys kids when did they take it they took it in October of their senior year when we offer it to them for free on our October testing day that's every single kids data that we have is from our own testing day not from a Saturday test or a different outside arranged opportunity for the workies great thank you doc thank you what's the percentage of students that take the ACT more than once take I would have to look that up uh act data is tricky to work with because we have to tie it to our kids um because they don't have to have any of our markers like when they register for the test um so we would have to pull that um we would have to pull

080that data individually to figure out how many of them take the ACT um more than once uh I will tell you we had when I logged into our portal the other day um there were about 400 kids in testing year 25 not graduation year 25 those are two different things in testing year 25 that already had an ACT score on file so it's pretty safe to say there's probably at least 400 of them sitting there that have taken it more than once because they already had one on file and they probably took it with us last week um but I can absolutely get that number for you knock yeah and then I'm curious uh from a curriculum and instructional standpoint like what sets apart the uh students with like lower scores versus um uh higher

081scores yeah that's a good question so because the ACT is based off of act's College and Career Readiness benchmarks and standards which are based off of the state standards and what colleges expect students to be able to know and come in and do if we do our job and teach to the level of the standard of the courses that we're teaching then we will meet the standards on the ACT um I am not a believer in let's teach to the ACT I'm not sure that there's value in teaching to the ACT but there is value in teaching to the appropriate rigor level rigor level of the standard in the published standards for the state of Kansas which are things Kansas and other states obviously are used by the ACT to create the test for the

082ACT you know there's part of it right math did you get did you get far enough along in your math career before you took the act right there's there's pre-calculus Concepts trigonometry Concepts on the act right well not everyone's going to be through pre-cal and trig and um so there there are things right if we can keep you on grade level and keep you on track to graduate right you're you're through geometry and into Algebra 2 by the time you take it you have a much higher chance of being successful on the math than if you've never been exposed to Algebra 2 and Algebra 2 makes up you know a certain percentage of the math test so and then a final question uh this might be difficult to answer I'm curious the uh like the

083percentage of students that you know they're studying for the ACT like outside of class like if they're taking like you know um ACT prep sessions if they're um um you know again things like that so yeah we we do have a couple of schools that offer ACT prep as a class um and we do have a couple of schools trying that um and then we also try to partner with our local universities that run ACT prep workshops so that we can publish those opportunities um and make them available to kids as they are interested in them thank you y thank you melody thank you uh that great great presentation I I want to make sure I'm understanding that uh when we look at the increase of the percentage of unique students scoring 21 or higher

084on the act or scoring a silver or higher on the ACT work keys from that 34.2 to the 37.7 we're already at right at 39 or close to 40 yes and that was a one-year goal it was we were supposed to hit the 37.7 by the spring of 25 and here we are in the spring of 25 check Circle it Mark it now what's the next one uh that and that's the work that we're going to have to do uh later this spring and this summer is okay what do we go after next do we go after 40% or or do we change the high school goal completely and do something different I'm not in that camp but there might be people in that camp uh but I think we we take the progress that

085we've made and can we make more progress is is what I'm hoping ends up being the new high school interim goal one for 20126 and um that how we actually get to that 37 or that we're at 39 now how we get there is that we actually combin if if they've taken both right we can we're combining those scores or how are we using yeah so if so here are see if I get my mouse to work here um this this unique tested number that you see here that's kids that took one test or the other test or both right right so if Timmy only took the ACT Timmy is only in the number of student students earning the asset if Timmy got a 21 or higher on the act so if they took both

086of them how are we listing them they e they got one of the assets or they got both of the assets right so if Timmy took the Act and the work keys and Timmy got the work keys asset but he didn't get the ACT asset he still counted as a yes because he got one of them because it's an or statement in the middle of the goal so we're counting that um whatever that that score is because they actually reached our bench which is the 21 yes so let so let's say if they if that person received a 16.7 on the ACT that's scratched if they take both and they get a 21 or high if they get the silver high if they get the silver higher on the work keys they they count if

087they don't get 21 or higher and they don't get a silver or higher then they there a they're nothing right but I mean we we we're not taking the 16.7 on the ACT we would take a 21 for the correct they're only in this number if they get a 21 22 23 all the way up through 36 and I guess my point is if and we won't know what the average is and how how much we've raised our ACT scores until when again yeah so the state publishes account accountability reports and the last year's average um is on those accountability reports and so we need to wait until KSD published the account publishes the accountability reports for 2025 and then I'll be prepared to give you that number um BEC I mean I can right

088now we're trending very well but there's so much data still to be considered that I don't want to put a number out there and it not match what we eventually get from the state because that's just more confusing yeah but what was last reported is at 16.7 yes ma'am and then the last point is it kind of appears as though we may be moving more in the direction of work keys versus act I wouldn't have a problem with that quite honestly but I'm just I'm just asking that question so I don't think giving you my observation yeah so I think I'm excited that we had roughly the same percentage of kids take the ACT and the work keys we had 72 perish of our kids take the ACT and 70 percent is of our kids

089take the work keys this is good now I want both of those numbers to actually be higher I do too um yeah um but that 70% let's call it 70% this 70% and this 70% might not be the same kids MH right um or it could be uh because this 70% there might be the 30% who didn't take the ACT might be like you know what that's not for me right I know it's not for me and I'm not going to show up and I'm gonna I'm not going to take the ACT on that day but that 30% that didn't take the ACT might be part of the 70% that did take the work keys because they're like a that's interesting um maybe that could be useful for me we want both of them to

090raise because like Kelly said earlier sometimes we slam doors shut on our future because we think they're supposed to be shut on our future and we would like as many kids as possible to take both the Act and the work keys because then we truly know what doors are open um for kids and so that's why we want both of the participation percentages in both of those to continue to rise yeah very good thank you yep thank you Lauren I think we the board has finished asking questions thank you for your presentation very informative this evening Latona next item data update all right as we transition I'll um tee this up we mentioned last month we had um we had hadn't been focused as much on student outcomes uh and our goals and so get

091a double dose tonight um of progress monitoring updates um this one's a little bit newish that we don't I think historically haven't come with you know this time of year with fast bridge data um but I think um it's important for us to for you to know how we keep an eye on uh the monitor or on the ball so to speak as the year goes on so I'll pass it off to H Amanda thank you for being here good evening we're back so we do want to connect what we shared with you in the good news items um related to this so the five teachers um shared from elementary and the three middle schools were around these two goals um so we're here to provide you an update around um our interim goals for

092middle school and high school around increasing our graduation rate but those specific interim goals um as I think you know I'll introduce myself again I'm Holly Ingram executive director of secondary curriculum instruction joined by my uh better half as I like to say don't tell my husband Amanda shal Elementary executive director of curriculum instruction so Lauren set the stage for us um on where we're going so looking again at uh goal one around the Strategic plan with the ultimate goal around increasing graduation rate there's more transitions on this than I knew so our two goals um Elementary around decreasing the percentage of students below Benchmark on third grade a reading from 56.5 to 53% by this spring and then in Middle School decreasing the percentage of students below Benchmark on 8th grade a math from

09363% to 59.5 so those are the goals we're going to give you some updates on where we're at related to our progress all right so where are we now for elementary interim goal um you'll see we have both the fall a reading as well as the winter a reading scores I do want to remind us that we came to you in September because we had pre previously been tracking the Kansas assessments for ELA however that test was changing so we decided to switch our Focus to a reading we used a fall Baseline for that because we had not consistently given this assessment to our third graders in the past so that 56.6 was fall um the there's 61.9% of our students right now who are not proficient so we actually have declined on that goal

094however 15 schools have met the end of the year Target as well as seven schools have grown but have not yet made the target this is given three times a year um we do not have the historical Trend data that we usually have to know if this is normal or not for our students at this point in time we hope to have that again at least next year we'll have two years worth of fall to winter Baseline data to look at but right now I couldn't tell you if this is um normal what we do have Trend data on is our other screeners that we've showed you before but we've never shown them to you in a winter to Winter scenario we've always showed them to you either fall to winter or fall to Spring

095and usually we can show you really decent growth on those early literacy screeners so this represents winter of 21 to Winter of 24 and the overall percentage Point increase or decrease for our students on the um early literacy screeners that you're used to seeing letter name letter sound word segmenting and then oral reading fluency is the cbmr so you can see that we have grown in all areas but Kindergarten word segmenting across the past three Winters four Winters really um and we've already looked at that kindergarten word seg Dro to find out what's the root cause of that um our learning Services team and we're already putting some things in place to prevent that from happening in the future um because we know word segmenting is really predictive of success in first grade as well

096so as we look um at the factors that are influencing our data as well as next steps I want to start on the left side here for a minute and talk about timing so this year we did decide to push the fall screening window back two weeks we did not move the winter screening window so what this essentially did was it shortened the amount of time that our students were receiving um prescriptive instruction and tiered reading um it did not change the fact that we had kids from August 15th until the window but it did change our tier times for intervention so that is 37 days of instruction they got from the end of the Fall screening window to the beginning of the winter screening window which was two weeks shorter amount of time instruction

097they would have had in previous years that matters the second is we introduced really great reading as our new tier three Intervention Program for reading It's Not Unusual to adopt a curriculum and for it to feel a little clunky at first both for our students and our teachers but also our system so as we think about the processes and projects related to those curriculum adoptions um it takes a lot of effort to learn the new curriculum how it's supposed to feel how it's supposed to go what data we're supposed to look at how we make adjustments um and so we were learning and are still are learning really great reading it's also a highly prescriptive program so our students who are most high risk are in tier three reading intervention and when I say highly

098prescriptive that means that we not only have to screen students but we also have to give them a diagnostic assessment to figure out exactly where the holes are so when we push the screening window back we also push the diagnostic assessment window back which led to later placement in tier three interventions this year the third Factor I'd like to talk about I think is most important and that's discreet versus complex skills um often we answer questions about well why is your word recognition data looking so great but then we take a state assessment or we take an a reading and it doesn't look as good um I want you to imagine all the things it takes to learn how to ride a bike we have to learn how to Pedal we have to understand speed

099we have to understand how to handle the handlebars how to honk the horn um all those things to get from point A to point B an a reading assessment is all of those things an early literacy screener is one of those things so a student taking a letter name assessment is very different than a student taking an oral reading fluency assessment or a comprehension assessment a lot of things things matter especially what the reader brings to the table background knowledge academic vocabulary understanding sentence structure challenging language and not all of our students have the same experiences to set them up for success in Reading whether they're a proficient word reader or not so what are we doing about that as you know letters has been a huge part of our work for elementary volume one

100was those discret skills that was the word wck piece 1500 to 1900 of our teachers already done with volume one they're actively in volume two volume two covers all those things I just talked about background knowledge vocabulary text driven comprehension and writing we are also making sure that our administrators and instructional coaches understand um both sides of the reading rope because when teachers feel empowered and supported and that they know their administrators and coaches know what they're supposed to be doing we can really move some mountains the turnaround is going to be longer it's going to take us longer to turn the ship on language comprehension than it has for us to start Turing the ship on word recognition but we're identifying comprehension strategies right now our leaders are out there looking for predominant instructional

101practices both in planning and delivery that we can identify as high leverage so that we can start uh making sure our professional learning plans aligned to those strategies so we get the biggest bang for our buck and I'm hopeful especially if as our state has decided that um the Seal of literacy is important to say our Educators understand the science of reading on both sides um that as we get through volume two we're going to continue to see growth in a reading as we have seen in our early literacy screeners I just would like for you to know that it will be a little bit slower than we've seen in the other test scores all right so as we shift to our Middle School goal around 8th grade a math so in the fall we

102had 68.1% of our students who were not at Benchmark not proficient and we have a slight Improvement to 6.7 this winter so we did make progress towards that goal as a district and 13 of the middle schools made progress towards the year- end goal we had a small number that went backwards um that we are continuing to dive in as you know or maybe don't know we don't have all the discreet screeners in math especially in middle school that you have in Reading um so I don't have that second piece of data for you um that Amanda has but similar factors at plays for us um the timing between fall and winter a little bit different than Middle School we had um continue to work with our middle schools around Tech deployment knowing we're one

103to one um and had just some uh adjustments and struggles there so we did bump back the window to give them more time which then again addresses um less instructural time between the windows there so just continuing to refine processes as um we are one toone as a system which is a Pro um in our middle schools but it also creates challenges getting schools started getting those deployed um so then that just impacts when we can give the screeners how quickly and then the time between those as well um and then similarly we had both new curriculum in both core and intervention um in middle school math so we adopted um you all approved a new core program for middle school and high school so our teachers received training on that last spring so this

104is our first semester using it full for course and then we have shifted using mathel for our Intervention Program which has a diagnostic component um so just giving our schools time to both learn the programs learn the resources learn what kind of data and supports are provided there um so next steps continuing to support teachers in professional learning and data analysis we had um we pulled our intervention teachers in November for kind of a deep dive now you've been using this Intervention Program what questions do you have how can we help you with that impr Improvement then at our last District inservice day had focus on both the core and intervention programs for teachers and then just continuing to work with our principles and instructional coaches um on supporting teachers in that implementation anything that's

105new you get started off and then how can we continue to refine processes um for our teachers to make sure that they have everything they need to ultimately support students as we work towards this goal so those are the highlights um so what questions can we answer for you does the board not have any questions knock thank you um so uh so 15 elementary schools met the end of the year Target uh seven schools uh grew but did not quite yet meet the target how many schools did um uh did not meet the Target uh Andor like they're stagnant or like even declined yeah we had very few schools that were stagnant um I mean so we have 50 elementary schools so 15 of them have already met the end of year Target so 35

106of them are still below Target um we are sharing that data with our principles here at pla this next week as well as with our instructional coaches on Friday and they're really going to take a look at just what you said is that growth data from Winter to Winter for um a lot of their early reading screeners but then fall to winter for their a reading uh we had quite a few schools drop which is why you saw the drop in overall a reading percentages do you think there are any like outside factors that would have like affected those scores Define outside factors well like poverty yeah absolutely um earlier when I said what our kids bring to the table matters it matters greatly um how often they get read to at home how often

107they experience literature how often um um they're not on a device it matters um kids come to school to learn but we have to do a lot of Gap filling for a lot of our students who have ve very low background knowledge and very little language acquisition especially the number of um Second Language Learners we have or even just low language Learners we have um we are constantly yes and do you guys keep track of the uh like the number of students that um get additional reading programming from like from like Community mentors and whatnot we have a couple of different Partnerships that we have through which talk Collective impact um read to succeed uh reading is fundamental and we do keep track um of the students in particular that are involved in those programs

108um outside of that if there are other Community Partnerships that are happening individual schools I'm sure those schools track them but we might not on the district level and then for uh middle schools um 13 schools made progress for the year end goal um How many middle schools um uh you know work stagnant or like actually had decreases I think it was five or six went the wrong direction uh I got to get used to the new number calculation of schools since last year so right thank you all so one one thing I want to make sure I didn't raise my hand on the deal but I a question I have that I think you covered but I want to I want to reiterate um the expectation went up as far as the benchmarks go

109from fall to winter right and so it isn't n as though you had to jump over a 5 foot high jump in the fall and now in the winter you still have to jump over a 5 foot high jump you have to jump over a five foot six high jump is that could you go especially in elementary so you might have and I'll just use kindergarten as example the fall Benchmark might be three three letter names three letter sounds the winter Benchmark is like 33 it's a huge increase in many of our early literacy screeners from fall to winter um you won't see as big of a jump from Winter to Spring but it is traditionally in our data it says that in the winter we always have schools that take a hit because the

110Benchmark raises So High um and if you take the shortened window of instruction time doubled with that it's is challenging to show the same amount of growth in that window and as you were describing challenges you know we talked about poverty we talked about barriers we talked about language acquisition um what factor do you feel like attendance plays in um this this data attendance um cannot be um I don't know highlighted enough if students are not in school to receive the instruction they need specifically if they have gaps to fill those gaps will just continue to get larger we all know that um many of our elementary schools reading core and reading intervention are in the morning so even if a student is truant tardy for 30 to 45 minutes every single day they are

111missing out on a lot of core instruction and it is nearly impossible if they get to third grade and do not have the skills they need is nearly impossible to get those kids up to grade level intervention becomes so much more critical core becomes so much more critical um and if you have not been in school for your kindergarten first and second grade years consistently it matters thank you melody certainly so when we talk about um basic needs basic needs of our students understanding that we have what 88% that are free and reduced lunch somewhere around that um yeah that those some basic needs are more than likely not being not being met for various reasons and so when we try to equate um outcomes just on a straighten straight level and not factor in

112that some of our students are coming to school with deficits um for for various reasons once again it's difficult it's a challenge to really get them there without meeting their needs first and um and I guess you know from a public school perspective and this is a commentary uh but from a public school perspective that's not what teachers are in the classroom to do is meet the needs of a student they're there to educate however that's what we're going to do from a teaching perspective in order to get them to the position or or or where they are capable and able to receive that education I say all that you know just to really look at what our expectations are and who the children are that we're attempting to meet them with so um we

113we have to do as a public school and as a school that has 88% free and reduced those are needs that we need to really look at how we partner with Community because I know you said that there are some Community organizations mentors um that partner with us to to try and help fill that Gap um there's really it it it would really you know be well suited for us to look at how we can partner with with other entities that are not our you know our teaching staff um and or our par staff quite honestly uh that's my commentary so next though I I want to look at and and these are fast Bridge U results both yes both are so I know I was listening to uh n NPR and um there was

114a statement that was made about um the the average reading um a percentage of proficient readers by the fourth grade and it was 40% this is National and so I'm I'm just looking I'm looking at us and and it appears as though what we're at well this is middle school math so if we're looking at elementary we're looking at approximately 38% 38.1 at third grade only third grade third grade and that's third grade because our strategic plan has a third grade goal right now sure that's and that's a goal but where are we now we're this is where we are correct correct so we're we're correct um reading we're at 38 we went down a little bit from the 43.4 so so you know we're we're running close with a national average and I see

115what we have in terms of of um factors and how we want to meet our goal and and tell me again what is our goal for for elementary Reading yeah we want to decrease the percentage of students who are not proficient on the a reading exam so and we're wanting to decrease it to 53% by this spring so that puts us at 47 so we need to go from 56.5% not proficient down to 53% not proficient so 47% proficient yes if you want int yes we're always looking not proficient versus proficient so yes 47% proficient proficient yes so that would put us higher higher higher than a a national average and not don't know what what are we at the state level that's a great question not all of us use the same types of

116screening assessments um so I'm not sure that we would be comparing Apples to Apples if we looked into that oh well that's which is why the state assessment is um that is The Equalizer yes supposed to be The Equalizer okay and so now to math um we're at we did make a decrease in being not proficient students that are not proficient to the 66.7 still keeps us at that 33.3 proficiency rate and and where are we trying to get to we want to get to 59.5 I believe is that right okay so 41% y proficient and once again I do see the the next steps um the factors as well as the next steps it's just it's just challenging I know it is I especially when you see a decrease a decline don't know how

117to capture it but particularly when you see students that when you see a percentage that we saw in the segmentation yeah the 7.7 for a kindergarten I think that's word segmenting especially when you see that um that has to be challenging and what did we put into place in order to um correct or it's a little technical um the fast Bridge assessment actually um assesses students on four phon words or four four sound words okay um so Club instead of Cub and so our actual curriculum hegerty which is all ofic awareness curriculum does not teach four sounds until much later in the scope of the actual curriculum so we were assessing skills that we had not even taught to our kindergarten students so we are now implementing more for phon words into that daily practice

118so that when they see a for or need to break down a foron word it's not new to them and they're not not doing it sure um so that was just more of like let's get and look at the data let's look at the curriculum where what's going wrong here root cause analysis type of activity that we did and found something and we're like huh this is probably leading to some of this met with our instructional coaches um put word out to our kindergarten teachers and we're going to see how that goes that was a pretty simple solution um they're not always that simple right and but we think that's it yes that's all that needed to change to really them what they needed in to be best prepared for testing and attendance kindergarten is

119historically the grade that misses the most School outside of preas thank you so so last thing I would say I don't know if any else has comment but I do think you laid it out very well as far as some of the challenges that is also what makes it so meaningful and so important right that that these kids need this access to all of these skills in order to be successful in life so uh and if they can't do this they can't do what Lauren wants them to do later so thank you any other questions from the board okay seeing none thank you ladies very much we appreciate your presentation this evening okay Lona next item consent oh Hazel um Madam president I'd like to request a short recess please okay um well okay motion

120made by Hazel uh seconded by Kathy do we have Lona can we vote on that with this okay okay motion Carri 70 we will take a 10-minute break and we will be back here at 8:00 sharp