our special meeting in public work session tonight. We'll go ahead and get started. If you would join me, please in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, 1 nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all. so, we do have, uh, Time tonight for public comment and a couple items, requiring action. and looks like we do have 1 person signed up and if you
want to Take the podium there. As always, you'll have 3 minutes to share with us what you'd like to share with us. Okay well again I'm bringing forward that I think the 3222 million uh expansion proposed by Perry, Township Schools is a waste of taxpayer money especially when there are already 2 references in place. Costing, the average homeowner about 12 to 15,000 dollars
in extra taxes. Um, I was given a note a a letter. Um that said, please know we do not intend to bring forward a referendum. but on the back of that packet, the last page says last file to last day to file petition, requesting application of reference referendum process. So, my question is, are you considering a referendum? Are you not considering a referendum? I don't get very clear
answers. And that's why I called the People in charge. I first, I said dishonest. And I changed it immediately to deceitful. Do you remember that board member over there? Um, and I looked up deceitful. And that means deliberately misleading, the synonym is dishonest and you yelled at me for. We're trying to correct you in your comment and you were joined by him yelling at
me that I had my 3 minutes. I was defending myself. So that's that. Um, and this, you had students come forward and say, you know, how they are making such friendships because of music and sports and the theater. You know, people have been making friendships, lifelong, friendships, kids forever, without 322 million or the
equivalent expansions. Um it's just a human thing to make friendships, sometimes very long lasting ones. so, um, Especially since the expansion is going to be mostly filled houses and wrestling rooms and tracks. And uh Auditorium curtains and seats and things like that. it's kind of silly. The only thing that made so much sense was bringing the um,
uh, special ed kids to the first floor, which didn't take a 322 million dollar renovation to do. And it should have been done a long time ago, I mean, that could be done. Easily with the money you received from the state. Um, so that 322 million doesn't even include the holder uh, field. That's around 9 million. Where's all this money coming from? How are you supposed to pay for it? Or I should say house. The taxpayer in Perry Township supposed
to pay for it. A man just told me that his taxes went up when the statements came to 5000 a year. And this is for a Perry Township home. Not in Emerald Highlands or anything like that in a very common neighborhood. Um, so I am very much opposed and I hope they're getting this on the Fox News over there. That because Perry Township residents really aren't aware, you are here 3 times. If you wrap up, please,
Gladly. I'm just saying that Perry. Township residents need to be aware of what Perry Township Schools is trying to do to them again. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to our items. Requiring action tonight. The first 3.01 is consideration of the Personnel report. Move to approve. Second. Motion was made by Mrs. Hartman, seconded by Mr. Lewis, are there questions or comments? Hearing none, we'll vote all those in favor. Say I
3.01 is accepted before we move on tonight. I did want to pass over to Mr. Spencer or Mrs. Pard. Good evening board. We have a couple of, uh, Elementary administrative openings that we have filled tonight, and wanted to make some introductions. So, um, I've told a couple buildings recently. The most important thing that I do is find great leaders to make sure that teachers can be supported and and helping students achieve the outcomes we want for them. So, both cases tonight, we have leaders that have played the roles of teacher, uh, Master teachers class and instructional coach assistant principal in our principal. So that system of career ladder is, is very
strong in our district. We'll go alphabetically by School. Uh, first up Glenn's Valley, I would like to invite Mrs. Lindsay Smith up to the front. We want to welcome Lindsay as the new principal of Glenn's Valley Elementary. And so give her an opportunity to um introduce her special guest tonight and say any words that she would like to say Hi, thank you so much for having me this evening. I'd like to introduce my husband, Jake Smith and my son, Lincoln Smith, and then, I also have some wonderful supportive
staff members who are here as well. Um, thank you very much for this opportunity. I'm very excited to step into another leadership role with and Um for the last 8 years, um and I have followed the NIT structures to get to this point. So I'm very excited to continue learning and growing and serving in this community. Congratulations, Lindsay. And next up, Mary Brian Elementary. We have a outstanding leader that's um going to continue to be a principal just in a new place. So I'd like to invite up Mrs. Lori Hansel the new principal at Mary Bryan, Elementary.
Thanks to Jeff and the committee for believing in me this is I'll be going into my ninth year as principal and I'm very excited to continue. The work at Mary Brian. Um, it's an honor of Graduate. And I just spent my whole career here and I'm beyond excited to I'm a pioneer. Um, she's a kindergartner at Jeremy kindergarten. And my daughter. Abby my husband Tim and my baseball player
son. Charles he's off to play baseball here in just a minute. Great, thank you. Congratulations. Laura. Good evening board. I Echo what Jeff said. Certainly, um, we take the role of choosing leaders for our schools, very seriously. We've devoted a lot of time and energy to it into it. I'd like to invite Mr. Dustin Kriswell, who's the principal at Perry Meridian Middle School to introduce his newest higher, um, who's coming back home? Mr. Criswell just like myself decided to come back home. Recognize a
very special place and I'll lead administrator put students first police and continue with Improvement tonight and middle school gets better. John Back to the district, uh, temporarily mental lapse there. I would like to introduce my wife, Aaron emans, who was a Southport high school, graduate of some mention,
all right, uh, if you were here for 1 of the recognitions you are more than welcome to hang out for our Public Works session on all things related to literacy, but we will also understand if you want to sneak out and celebrate together. Oh yeah. That's cool. All right. Our only other item requiring action tonight is 3.02. Uh, consideration of Epic Insurance, Midwest, Insurance Brokerage agreement with Mr. Hatcher. Thank you very much. We present for consideration. The
renewal with epic Insurance, um, all of our, uh, providers for our insurance are the same. Um, there are rate increases involved, um, but none of the carriers, um, change. So the list is on there and we would, uh, uh, present this for your consideration. Move to approve. Second. Motion is made by Mr. Mertz, seconded by Mr. Hernandez, are there questions or comments? Hearing none, we'll vote all those in favor. Say I I I post
day. 3.02 is accepted, uh, for the main presentation this evening. We'll pass it back to Mr. Spencer Mrs. Pard thank you board. As uh Mr. Schiffli alluded to, we're going to talk about some um in-depth, some some literacy tonight. Uh we're going to start. Uh we wanted to talk a little bit about enrollment I think we got back up. So on the first page and you've got the paper copies in front of you um you can see anticipated enrollment for next year. So we've rolled um grades up so they'll be in the the
proper cohort. So this year's kindergarten is out in first grade and so on and so forth. Um, and we've got it side by side on Perry and Southport. So as the demographic study predicted, you're starting to see some of that. Um, Decrease on the Perry side for students. Um, most notably in our first grade class you can see there's a pretty big discrepancy and a and a really small cohort so we'll continue to keep an eye on that. You can also see that the large bubble of students that we added on. To buildings for is now getting into the secondary level and
approaching the high schools. And so, um, we just wanted you to know 1. We've used this information as a starting point for looking at Staffing. Uh, We've really committed also to, um, being really transparent with our administrators, so they know the system and they know how that works. So that it's not who has the biggest um, questions and and and desires. But it's, it's really based on the the ratios and formulas that we use. And so, uh, in our meetings with principals and preparation for Staffing, we went over that information for just general number of students, but also special education and eel. And then use
that to determine at the K1 grade level 25 to 1 is kind of our ratio that we we try to fit to and then it's 27 to 1 at the, at the grades. Uh, so secondary is a little bit different when we start Staffing conversations at the principal, the um, guidance director and usually whoever's doing their Master scheduling, and I sit down. And we talk about um, some of different um needs that they have based on a lot of factors including the new pathway requirements. Um what the student course requests are Etc. And we try to keep our class
sizes. It's a little bit higher than Elementary it's usually 28 to 30 um but of course that depends on many factors at the high school level um and those conversations then lead into 2 other. Um Sections or uh, segments that Jeff. And I have really studied this year over the last couple of years that we want to talk about and that is special ed and eel. So we want to kind of show you the data on special ed. so, this is, um, So these are the historical, December 1 counts. So in the top left in the pink you can see 2,865. That was our number
of special education, special education students, in December of 2021. If you go to the very bottom of the list in the April 2425 we now have 3,337 students so you can see just in a really short period of time, the number of increased special education students that were serving in this District. on the right side it's a little bit in the weeds but um we get reimbursed uh we get funding for special education students based on those December 1 counts and you can see how that funding in the far, right? Column has changed over
that same 4 year period, the APC level 1, 2 and 3 you can see their funding levels are different for that. So things like speech, uh language impairment, those get funded at a smaller level than some of um, the disabilities that are more significant and so those those get funded at a higher level. So we just wanted you to see, is that the elementary level, we're we're cutting back sections as people resign and retire because we don't have as many students at the elementary level but at the special education side. We're seeing a great growth in the number of students that we're serving
Jeff. I have a question when we refer to special needs are needs are those all kids that have an IEP? Yes. These are all students. That have an IEP. And then again, those APC levels are just different qualifications. So some students eligibility is because of a speech impairment, which is usually the the shortest time in special education and the least amount of resources needed to help support that student as opposed to as Jane's going to talk about in a minute and our students and our sip program are comprehensive Intervention Program, those students, um, our self-contained and have a lot of needs and so we get more
funding for those students got you Thank you and Mr. Hatcher will tell us that we don't get enough from the state to fund what we really need um but we do get higher levels for the more significant disabilities. so, we do think it's, um, Finding out the specific sip historical numbers because they have significantly grown since the 1920 school year. So, on the next slide, you'll see that in 1920, we had 112 students who qualified for Sip and this school year. 2425, we have 224 students so you you will see in um board
requests as as Jeff and I Complete Staffing that were um requesting additional staff members and we wanted you to have the the data behind the reasons. Why? Just to because that's that's a large increase has the, um, definition or parameters changed to. So, that's a great question. We had the same question questions as we have been studying the data for the last couple of years and um, the definition hasn't changed and 1 question that we would ask is, are we over qualifying students for Sip? And we don't believe. So if you visit our sip classrooms, the
students that are in our sip classrooms have significant needs and so we don't see that. Um, we also know that, um, there have been things that happen to have happened in the community. Some some other resources, our community has had such as Behavior Centers and whatnot that have not have have stopped serving our students. And so we're seeing those students come more into our schools Um, so that might be 1 piece. That's influencing this a little bit but really we can't get around the truth. That we are have more students with higher needs in our district
that just remains a truth 1. Specific thing that you'll see in the data of these Elementary you can see there's a larger number of students there. So ABA centers used to be funded at a higher level and the Medicaid Cuts have impacted that. So some of the students that maybe weren't our students before are now coming to us from those centers and are now, uh, students in public education setting, any other questions about enrollment or any of those slides? If not, we're going to transition into literacy, Okay, we know that the state has the lofty goal of 95% of our students, passing and I read 3. Um, so last year we
were roughly 70% pass rate as a district. Our goal this year is 75%. Um, it was a pretty ambitious goal. It was so end of year, M class in second grade students that are on or above where they're supposed to be. Those students typically pass I read 3. So we know that that's kind of a starting point for a goal. Um, we also this year, took all of our students who are in that um approaching column and expected them to get to passing. And so we got to that goal being 75%. Um,
In that counts our second graders that took it last year with us which is a new thing that we had not done. Last year was the first time that we had tested second graders so they are included in that data and then our dibels goal. Um, so dibels mclass is our our foundational literacy assessment. We now give it to students in grades K through 5. This is the first year that we've had it in grades 3 through 5. Um, our goal there is 95% of students are making average or better growth. Um so we will at some point at the end of the year, report out on how we got how we did with those but looking at and we this is why we printed
this because this is this is um a little small. But uh you can see by school Pass rates for um, Last year and this year, for third grade, um, you can see last year at the, on the bottom of the chart. 64% of our students passed on the first take this year 63.6, um, we implemented a brand new curriculum this year, and did a lot of teacher training and so to not see a dip and we thought that was was pretty exciting to be with a couple
tenths with what we did last year. A couple things that are different this year as well, our third graders will get 2 attempts to get to pass. Um, They'll get a attempt in May and then those that still have not passed will come to summer school. That's new. It used to only be 1 attempt. And then our second graders, all of our second graders who are on track the first test, they will test again in May and hopefully get to that pass rate. Um we've done some intentional work with schools also on everyone, having an I read 3 intervention plan, um, that's kind of on the same
form with identifying, which students how far they are from passing, what's the plan between now and May? And so, we really think that we will get that 75%, um, by the end of summer school is our, Our Hope still so. Um, but it's still excited to see that. We're we maintained with all the different things that we changed this year. So oh, go ahead. So second graders, They've already tested and they will have another chance to test in may not summer school. Like, in by the end of the
school year, that's correct. Um, so so second graders, get the designation as either at risk. Um, on track or they pass. And so the state's saying, the on-track kids should pass this third graders with just normal instruction. The at risk, students are going to need more. So those at risk, students are going to come to summer school and they will have an individual reading plan for next year and then they'll take the assessment again, as a third grader, we're testing our on track kids because we think that they're the ones because it's either pass or fail when they take it again this time. So, on track kids,
with extra interventions between March in end of year. We feel like having opportunity uh schools will identify any at risk students who they have other data. That suggests, these kids have a chance like maybe they had a bad day. So they have the discretion to look at those students and add those students into the testing pool as well did do all. Second graders have to test again, or can we just pull those? We can identify how we do that. So we're we're just focusing on students that we have data that suggests, they have a chance to pass.
And at the end of third grade, if we have students that don't pass, I know the law may have changed at some, when it first came out, they wanted them to be held back. Is that still the case? So, the new laws is kind of back to that harder stance on retention. So, um, we're working through that right now. As far as what we plan on doing with that, there is some It. They can have fourth grade. Curriculum at other um subjects but they have to have that third grade reading curriculum. So we're we're working on what that's going to look like. Because of, okay.
Um, so then the next slide. Is our oops. All the way is our second grade data. So then this kind of shows you that breakdown I just talked about a minute ago on the top is our our results this year. You can see how many students passed we were a little lower on the pass side this time, but the second Farthest. Right? Column is the average scale score and you can see that went up this year from 402 last year at the bottom up to 405 this year and then if you combine our on-track, plus pass that percentage went up.
uh, about a little over a percentage point, so we're getting more kids that are getting close to that level so again those students will have an opportunity if they're on track to pass this may and then our students that don't pass will get an opportunity again as a third graders. Questions on. Second grade Pass rates. Okay, so then the next 1 uh kind of breaks down the bubble. This is an exciting 1 because you can see at the top far, right corner the 44.19%. Those are our students that were
380 or higher at their first take and so that our students that we really think have a really good chance of of Passing in future attempts. At the bottom last year, we were at 37.48%. So we added almost 7 percentage points of students that are kind of on that bubble and projecting where they're supposed to be passing. There. Yeah, they're second grade. Oh, I'm off on that, that's okay. So then the next 1, I skipped a oh no. So sorry, second grade bubble is where were they? Approaching third grade bubble was the same numbers, it's
400 or higher and you can see, we're right about the same that we were last time. So just keeping track on those kids that are, that are getting close, uh, to that pass rate. Um, And then the next page. There you go. The next page is our initial password rates from third grade to this year. Or from last year's third grade to this year's third grade. So these aren't the same number of kids. This is looking at this, these aren't the same students. This is third grade students. Last year, third grade students this year. So you can see 6 of our schools either improved or stayed the same. Um
highlighting the work at Glenn's Valley. Uh, Dave role is leaving us, but they've done some early outstanding work to grow. They, um, increase their pass rate by 8.1%, which was 11% growth rate, and then Clinton young was right behind them. So, 2 years in a row that we've seen that with Clinton, young of having an increased This time, 4.7% more students pass, but that equates to a 10% growth rate. So, um, And then you've also got Southport L1, uh, Henry Burkhart, Mary, Brian, and DM all at the same, or above from last
time. Just help me remember, I'm sorry. Um, The redistricting. Yeah, so what that happened? Prior to last year's third graders, right? They were in year 2, we would have to go back to Spring 2013, to see that difference. Um, it probably mostly impacted as we know, Rosa Parks and and um gray when they became District school um neighborhood schools that had an impact on them. Um so that is that is a factor as well. So then the next shifts, um, we wanted to look at the data
and find some bright spots but also some connections to the work that we've done in literacy. So it talks about the shift that all students deserve access to the entirety of Tier 1 literacy block. There were times when we were pulling out students from our our Tier 1 literacy to receive some more intensive support. Um Then they would miss some of that Tier 1, that that grade level standards. They were not always getting those because they were getting pulled out of that. And so we made a shift of that time is all of our students are in that for the entirety.
The thing I want to highlight on this piece uh 2 things the large chart in the middle. This is our second graders who are at near, which is the state determination. And that sounds really weird that you're calling at and near the same thing. Um but then above For their foundations of vocabulary. So they're, they're foundational skills. That things that are most important to gaining those skills. To eventually be able to read. Well, if you look at across the board, all of our breakout groups, subgroups stayed the same or went up, I would
especially highlight special education. Last year, only 36% of our students were in that at near or above range and we grew to 46%. So I think the Highlight there is that when we gave our students access to that Tier 1 curriculum, we're seeing them grow. On the bottom is the other thing that I would like below that large chart. And this is for our students, who are above only in the foundations, in vocabulary. In 2024, we had 94 students this year, we had 213 students. So again, I think
highlighting the fact that we have a a curriculum that's aligned to the science of reading and is giving the teachers the tools that they need to explicitly and intentionally, teach that we're already seeing some positives. And so we think as we continue to do this and grow, Capacity and our teachers could even more comfortable with it. We're going to continue to see these types of gains. Um second grade students on Pass Plus track. Yeah, so it is. So those are our students in second grade that either were determined to be on track or passing and then it's for on the left is our El students. On, and then it's nonel and then it's sped and then it's
non sped. So, we saw a little bit of a dip in aerial students, which I'll, I'll show on the next chart, but for our non or sped and our, uh, non-ped, those rates got better or stay the same. Our next slide highlights eel. So again, kind of similar to that last piece. So so this is third grade, El pass percentage. You can see in all but a couple of our buildings, um, those rates increase in some in some places substantially increase. So we're excited to see that. Um, Weiss is the El
tests that students take and those data is starting to come in too. So we're also excited to see what's that going to look like with our students in Reading. Um, but you can see Again, large gains, especially at Rosa, Parks Elementary at 23%, uh, growth rate. They really had a huge impact 1 from 61 to 75. There's a couple spots that are that are different or that that went the opposite way. Um and so we've we've identified some things within the system maybe that school maybe didn't think through that they're then. Thinking to how they're going to support that better next
year. And then the next page in the, I think the last piece of my data um, is So, this is kind of what I alluded to earlier. Um, and The blue bar graph is how many students at the end of the year second grade were predicted to pass. I read 3. So it went from 60%, 62% 58%. And then the red line is what, how many students we actually got the line. So this year, Plus 6 from 58 project expected to have the 64 pass was the
biggest increase that we had seen. So again, just some bright spots within the data that are showing that the hard work that our teachers are doing. And, and the shift to a new curriculum that is aligned to the science of reading is paying off. Any questions about elementary data? I do have a question Jeff. I'm trying to figure out how to how to ask this 1. I know what some of our buildings, we may have a higher, rate of students that are moving into the district. And this may be the first time they're that they see the way that we teach reading are there schools that we have a
greater M metrication rate or influx from other areas that aren't teaching what we're teaching to our first and second graders. So they get affected at the third grade level. Let me paraphrase it for you. Make sure I get it. Um, I think you're asking, do we have Do we know like the students that come in from outside the district, where they're coming from, and how they're doing whenever they get them, right? I we can tell you transient percentage, I don't know if she can tell you. All the, so the data that we've looked at and like the prediction rates, it's usually for students that we've had
for the entirety. It's like when I say that like students that at the end of year, did this those students are ones that we've had got. Um, so I don't know if we've looked at the other. We could that's a good question and a challenge for us. And that's a difficult and it's a difficult question because it's a I'm sure it's a difficult thing to track as well, but I'm glad that you clarified. Now, I have a better understanding of these are students, we followed, you know, into their K or 1 through through 3. The other thing just internally because we have a lot of families that move within Perry townships. They might be at 1 Elementary School 1 year in a different than next. That's part of the
push and I think the important of the aligning, it across the district. So that If I go to kindergarten Here in first grade here and second grade here, it's not going to be ckla 3 different ways. So we're working hard to make sure that our pacing and and the the ways that we're implementing the curriculum are are similar across the board? Okay, that's what I was gonna say, thank you. Do you see any uh, considerable outside private? Data is in class or something.
That contribute to Improvement of that. Student reading class. The outside schools system. Like I I know some small level, the home school or something. A group of people training. I'm not sure I've seen a different, a different smaller school that has a better way of literacy instruction in school but in private tutoring. Oh got you. Um, we do not have 1 that we're accessing right right now and I don't know if we, if I don't if families
are using that, it's not through us. So I don't know if we would know, which students are getting outside, help, okay? If it's not something that we have access to, if they're seeking outside tutoring, Lot of effort and time and energy into Shoring up the elementary literacy and you might remember a couple of years ago when the state started telling us that um we were were going to have to align to the signs of reading. And we were going going to have to choose curriculum that way um we started and we recognized that 1 of the things that It makes our district unique. Is that students come to us at all grade levels, not knowing how to read, right? So we
knew that we were going to have to pay attention to this at the secondary level as well. So if just a reminder that we have a lot of our secondary, um, ELA teachers who are trained through letters in the science of reading and they've been watching this implementation and we're ready. Now to start this up at the sixth grade level starting in the 2526 school year. So just as a baseline approach here um you know that we opted into the checkpoints, um, this year next year, they'll be required for everyone, in the state of Indiana. But this year, we opted in to them all at all, grade levels that we could, which included 67th and
8th. So, here's some, um, interesting Baseline data for us. Um, you can see on these charts, that in, um, at the sixth grade checkpoint, 1 checkpoints, seventh grade, and eighth grade. A couple of things to point out the first line of all of these charts is the state average. The second line is, um, our district average, and then it's broken out by school so you'll see the period. Versus the Southport side. Checkpoint 1 2 and 3 are not um comparative because they test different standards. So it's unfortunate because we
like to look at growth but you can't really look at growth. Um, if you dig into this data, there are some, um, uh, some a deeper dive into different components of elah. Um, and even in the labeling, the of those, um, sometimes the names are the same but when you dig down into them, they test different standards. So Nonetheless, it is where we are. Um this is all in front of the island test. That the students are taking right now and so this is what has led up to that so you can see, 6th grade. Um, you can see 7 and you can see a
Happy to take any questions on any of them. So these checkpoints how like is, is like, you have 1, 2 3, are they given like that? Is it is it all 1 test? Is it 3 separate tests, its 3, separate tests. And so in the entire District we have that the state gives us a window and we have identified when we're going to take those tests as a district so that we can have data to compare as Jeff said, you know, because of we are transient a lot within our district, 1 of the things we need to commit to is making
sure that students receive instruction no matter what school. They go to that. When they move school to school, they have the same experiences. Um, so we've we've created our own Windows about. When we take the, the state checkpoints, there are 3 of them, the state gives us an OP. Opportunity to retake a checkpoint. So, let's take a checkpoint number 1, as an example, everyone in eighth grade using this slide has taken checkpoint 1. We take that data and we provide specific interventions based on the information we have about the students who are not meeting,
um, expectations. We have an opportunity to retake checkpoint 1. It's called opportunity, 2 for checkpoint number 1, and you can take that opportunity up until you take iLearn. So we've had a lot of discussion about. When do you do that? You take it right before Tech Point. 2 is is the advanced. Do you take it right before? Um, you, the schools have lots of questions around that. We've tried it a couple of different ways. Um, next year, I think we'll have a better plan for how to utilize that opportunity too, which is a retest of the checkpoint. That's how we would be
able to measure growth because it's the same standards. And this year the the opportunity to didn't next year. It will have an impact on the, the end of year iLearn, it's a formative assessment so that will feed the system on how they did. And they'll all start at different places this year. It did not do that. It just Gave the state data for them to figure it out for next year. Because remember the final I learned is adaptive. We're learning. How does that? Um, Like the getting this information responding identifying
students. How does that work in 6 to some degree but definitely 7th and 8th. When these kids are also taking electives they they picked out a schedule for themselves. How how does that work? I mean that good point. To talk about with the state. It's telling us to do about that especially in the areas of of math. But so as students grow through our middle school system that they get to choose some electives but we also based on their, their student data helped them to some students who might need some additional interventions or who might need a double block of something. If you if you
will. And of course for our span and Yale students is the students that receive Services all of those additional supports and intervention times come from the information, we have about students and this is what teachers use cluster time as well, to talk about what students in my class and my targeting for specific, um, assistance, if you will, in learning, whatever the materials that they need to learn for that time period. So It, it's been learning. I'm struggling with my words a little bit. Because you remember, when we took evaluate, we did it month by month by month, and we could take that and
we could measure growth. And we were so hopeful that, that's what this would be. And it really hasn't been that there's been some lack of understanding on our part. There's been some frustration, um, because that's not how the state set it up. And so, it is what it is. So how can we utilize this? Um, still in the ways that we need to to help our teachers, grow our students. That's what we've spent the year really trying to figure out. I think there is some Merit, in the growth pieces, it just depends on when we give them and how we use the data. Like at the elementary level are we are the second grade
level I guess. Are we retesting everybody on the checkpoints or only those that we see I'll be honest. We focused really on our mclass data this year and are things that address I read. So we've not been as intentional at the elementary level with focusing on checkpoints because we've we've really gone on all all in on implementing ckla. And using the data, we we gain there, we've done a little more with math is if you remember our last Everyday, Math adoption. We, um, purchased a program called Alex, which is
a adaptive software component, that aligns to the grade level standards. So, Jessica Witt our district, math coach has done, a great job of, figuring out a way to take this data and identify, how to use that with Alex for students. And so, we've used it really well in that way, with Ela. Because of some of the things that Jane talked about of it. It wasn't exactly what we thought it was going to be. We've really focused more on using mclass, in the tools that we have there. But it's 67 and eighth grade. We are only supposed to give when we have only given the opportunity to to the students
who have received specific intervention. You can't globally test. That's been something else to figure. And I'm sorry I have 1 more. Okay. So like I think of checkpoints you know is like 1 fiction, 1 non-fiction 1 vocabulary, I mean like is that or is it more a Cluster of different things. Certainly is a cluster of different standards. Um, the vocabulary piece shows up a couple of times, they just test different standards within that topic. Um, it's
There it takes the entire year of standards and 6,000, eighth, grade, and breaks it up into 3 sections and chunks. And there's a blueprint for that. So we, we know where, when things are being tested, it's not a surprise. Yeah. So go ahead, I'm sorry. You said you're trying to get Perry the both sides of the district to align. Are they testing at the same time they are. Okay, our district, testing coordinator, Kim jovic has, um, identified the windows and the schools had input on in that this year and remember, it was just a pilot, but
we've been able to take kind of their what happened this year to say that doesn't work, or we should test sooner or later. In this coming year, we'll set those windows. Again we will all do checkpoint testing at the same time so that we can at least compare data school to school. So looking at the high school PSAT, sat Brian's done a ton of work around this and he has many beautiful graphs and charts. I just pulled 3 because I think it tells some of the story. Um, so this is looking at our, our high school,
um, Group by cohort. Okay. So what did they do when they when they were in ninth grade 10th grade? And then 11th, um, PSAT to sat and so you can, these are the same kids cohort to cohort the top or same kids in the cohort. I should say. The top graph is the district numbers and then they are broken out by Parry in Southport so you can see side to side the number there. There's interesting data here about how many have met benchmarks, how many are approaching benchmarks? Um, I think the word, what do they
use? Strengthening is interesting because that means they're below level. Um, they just say it friendlier, I guess. Um, but I think the data that the piece that I was looking at the state average in that, um, meeting the been Benchmark is 51.8 and I put little green boxes around so you can kind of see where we are as a district and then where we are side to side compared to the state average. What Brian's done with this is he's broken It Out by um by subgroup so we can see in each of our subgroup. Populations
in that cohort, how they are growing year to year and um really with Brian's leadership. We're getting better at the high school level of utilizing this data figuring out how this can be useful. And what we can do to impact it year to year from PSAT 9, to PSAT, 10 PSAT 10 and so on and so forth. So the Juniors who took the sat back in March right on the school day. We have PSAT data for over 3 years. For them. Correct. Correct. Okay, correct.
We have the opportunity for eighth grade PSAT data as well that eighth and Ninth is a cohort. We did that a couple of years ago and and really didn't find that valuable use of time. We didn't the, the data was pretty far away. We didn't use it, so it's remains out there as an option. Um, Brian and I talked about it a lot, I don't know, we may add that back in now that we're better using the data, it just depends. if we find it useful, other questions. Okay. So what's next to the secondary level. So, um, we're
really excited now to take the work, they've done at the middle school. I'm sorry at the elementary school and bring it into our middle school. So you know that, um, 4 or 5 years ago are both 6 or 8 Academy have already adopted, the amplify curriculum. So the state's telling us, we have to have those high quality instructional materials, we have them. Um they launched the amplify Ela curriculum in the middle of coid. So training looked weird training, felt weird all the things and so we're going to support our 6th grade teachers with a relaunch this year so they've taught the curriculum for 4 years but we're going to support them
in 2 ways 1 with just a kind of a reintroduction. What's the thing that you is back on the shelf that you totally forgot about how do we relaunch that and then second with kind of a deeper dive into the utilization of those different resources and how to use them to differentiate instruction for each need based on student. The student data that you have so that's something that we're starting this, um, May and this summer, we're also we also have a group of people, a group of leaders at the sixth grade level, who will be working together on um creating a common pacing guide that
follows the ELA curriculum. So For once will be together with the curriculum, mimicking, kind of what we saw with our elementary friends and following that question that you asked about transiency, it's time. Now, we're, we're kind of there now in our population that what's best for 1 is best for all. So we have some leaders working on what that is to identify it, and we're going to launch that for sixth grade. We're also going to field test in seventh and eighth grade. Um, they don't 1 side has the, um, Ela curriculum and the other 1 does not. So, we're going to field test. Um, the amplify
like curriculum and seventh and eighth grade on each side to see what we can learn from that. We will be approaching approaching uh, an adoption cycle for English language arts coming up in 2 years. So this will help us to have enough data to make good decisions. When that gets here. What happens at the middle school level will will determine what we adopt then from there. So what are we paying attention to? Well, they have this tool at the elementary level, Jeff didn't talk about. But I'm going to it's called language studio and it's specific to our Ela students and 1 of the things they have found with. The elementary level is the way they approach the the
language or the um lessons and see seeka, previews it with L in language studio. So the El students have an advantage when they get into the classroom. We're watching that really closely, they don't have it at 67th and 8th grade level. But they have good practices in that, that we can replicate. So we're paying attention to that. We're also, um, district-wide paying attention to to that. How are we shooting our own selves in the foot by not giving all students? Um, Equitable access to Tier 1 instruction, and all content. Areas. So, we're making sure that our instructional leaders
understand that, and that our schedules, don't get in our own way. And then, of course, the state still talk talking to us about high quality, instructional materials, um, otherwise known as HQ IM. And, um, and when we set our interventions and use the use of appropriate intervention materials. So those are the things that we are working on for the 2526 school year. Those, um, HQ IMS have to be approved by the state. Correct. Correct. And they don't have the Middle School, um, list out yet. Um, we expect it will be a short list, um, but I also, I mean, I hope that amplify is on there.
I'm anticipate that it would be since CA was on there for elementary They also will be telling us about intervention materials, we anticipate, so that's coming. It's just not out yet. But what they have been working on if I can shift gears for 1 second is math. So um, House Bill 1634 that was just passed. Um bring some interesting insight into math for us. Um, basically in a nutshell, what it's telling us is a student at the middle level. 677, 8th grade, fifth, 67th, if they pass the state assessment, um, in an advanced level,
Then they are, we are required to put them in an advanced math course, it really makes a lot of sense on paper, which is probably how it passed. So, um, that piece of the bill is, is um, required to be implemented. This July, so, at the secondary level, we start scheduling students in January, so it's a little bit of a behind the ball, but it's okay. We're going to make it work. So we took a look, Jessica with our wonderful math. Coach has been helping us. She took a look at that data at the top, like, where are we? If we had to implement this tomorrow, where are we? And
about 77% of our students we're we're in pretty good shape especially at the middle level in um, 6 and seventh grade, when students exit those grade levels, we are paying attention to that data because we've got 91 and 92% of our students scheduled in its 5th to 6th that transition from 5th to sixth grade, where it seems to be that. We've got some work to do. We have only about 55% of those Advanced students in advanced math classes, so we're going to do that work. Obviously, the challenge is for any of you that know anything about math is math is a linear
subject area and we at the middle levels, stay in basic math classes for the majority of our students, write fifth grade math, then their sixth grade math and their seventh grade math in Period Township, eighth grade math is pre-algebra. so, if you have, if you pass, ILearn at an advanced rate and you need to go into an advanced class. We can put you in an advanced class sort of because you're kind of 1 up and that what the next level is going to take up until you get into 6 and seventh grade.
And if you take seventh grade, uh, if you score in an advanced way, on the I learn test in seventh grade, the pre-algebra class is eighth grade, right? That's eighth grade math. So if you skip that and go to the advanced class that would be algebra. Well, you haven't had pre-algebra thus the Dilemma so our um, math department here is our team leads at the middle school are really working hard on this. With Jessica, you can see where we're working on some pathway possibilities. We've got some what's normal, what do our Advanced kids do? And we've got the hodgepodge in the middle. We'll be working to figure
that out so that we can schedule kids into that those courses, whatever, they end up being for the 2526 school year. There's another piece to this law that we'll have to talk about later that um, also impacts it. We'll start to impact Us in the 2627 school year, and it has to do with interventions. I think, Mr. Tabby you asked that question and what that law says is that we have to schedule students who don't qualify who don't who aren't on track, who aren't passing into specific interventions at it for a specific rate of time. And so we've got some work to do, it's going to
Sign significantly change how we offer instruction at the middle school level. to be continued and then, This house. Bill only. Addresses. Fifth sixth, seventh and eighth correct. So it doesn't flow up then to the, yet the school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. We have our high school people involved because obviously this starts then to impact the new diploma requirements and if you take a math class in Middle School, it counts for middle school math, elective credit, but you are still required to take Math course and the high school. If you're working on certain diploma requirements
and quite frankly, we're going to run out of math classes. So we have figured this out. We will, we'll do the work. I think Jane's gonna run out of breath about that point, but Amen. I I think 1 of the, um, Biggest outcomes of of tonight and sharing both the literacy work that's going on and the touching into the math work. Is just so you kind of get like, a peek behind the curtains of of, some of the work and the alignment that's taken place from our, you know, our, our little students, all the way up through, through our through, our
older students, um, focusing on that literacy. Um, not only for for reading and reading comprehension but also math literacy. Um and again just going back to that intentionality of it. That continuity that we're talking the same language. We're we're doing the hard work, we're doing it, doing it together to um, focusing on those quality instructional materials as well. Um, as we're talking about some of the different tests that we're doing understand that those are some some of those are still in development by the state and not only And they're in development, they got cut their budgets, got
cut when on those last budget session so we're not sure what the the status of those is going to be going forward. Um, but again, we're you know, as we see those assessments, we want to see how do we, how do we get the most information out of them? What's the most practical? Um, because it is frustrating. Um, for our administrators in the buildings, our teachers to be going down the path of hey, we're going to use this assessment. We're going to try to get this longitudinal data and then it's gone. Or it's not kept up to date or something of that nature. But again, just going back to I think that that continuity
And then also really focusing on interventions. Um, there was a a time um that we would take the I read test, and it's like oh these kids pass these kids failed on with April and May um, without even changing a lot of what we do to make sure they get to where they need to be and we come back and give those interventions on in a meaningful way. And 1 of it is you know again going back to every kid has an opportunity at it, they get to get access to it. I have 1 more question. Um, can you go back to the SAT?
For like the Matt no benchmarks, is that really the 50%? Like I'm trying to get the add these numbers together. To make sense, okay? So part of the day that you're missing, the only day that we put on here was the um, English song guitars, there's math data on here as well. So when it says met both been benchmarks, what they're talking about is they met the ELA and the math benchmark. Um, certainly can give you that information. if you want to see both of them, so, it's only then just
Like the 49% or the 55. The Met e r w. Right, right? And another 1 have you seen? Um, like the test is an accurate reflection of are the students like are their grade similar. Like, if they do bad on the test, do you see that in their grades or if it's a, is it a good correlation? That's really a great question. So there's a lot of debate about the SAT being a valid measure of high school assessment. Um I don't know that we actually see that it doesn't measure
measure general knowledge. It was always meant to be for collegebound kids which isn't, you know, doesn't include all of the students and app that we serve in our district. So um it's hard to match that to grades. Unfortunately. Right. College boards. and the other piece to piggyback on that is that when you think about general math knowledge, and you think about the, the specific math knowledge in each course, depending on, where the student is in their math journey, they may be
tested on information. They haven't seen in a while. So it's that doesn't necessarily align either well, and I would imagine the opposite is probably more true for our kids, right? Where they're asked to do advanced math, trigonometry. Absolutely, even in Algebra 2, that they have not seen before. Is that fair to say? Yeah, absolutely. And might get worse. Right? Is the new requirements have changed? we'll see the state used to have and of course assessments that were tied specifically to the course Which would have been a better than I could have answered
your question better. Because I could have said, yes, those are tied to the standards of that course. They've gone away from those and gone to this kind of global sat I was just thinking like as a parent if I saw like, oh my kid, got this on the test. Would I feel like they were behind or could I look at their grades and be like, no, they're okay. They just Aren't doing well on the test. Great. Great point. And the other question, as a parent that a lot of our parents ask is this is data about the school sat and some of our more, um, committed students. If you will have taken SATs starting in, you know, junior year
or, you know, they've taken it over and over trying to hit some of that scholarship money that's not reflected in this data. This is specifically the test they took at school, which may or may not be taken. I would say, um, First, a lot of a lot of numbers tonight. So be ready for some questions down the road as we digest it more, but I also think it's important to know behind the numbers are people and I just want to thank the um, The the teachers, especially who have. Um, Especially the lower grades with the literacy changes. Um, taken on a heavy lift this year. In addition, to the heavy
lift, they take every year and for the students to um, who are working hard um, to show what they know. So thank you for kind of accumulating these and presenting these, um, And again the hard work top top down for everyone involved uh with that we are adjourned this evening. You. J. House.