Newtown’s Director of Teaching & Learning Frank Purcaro presented data from the most recent district-wide student assessment at the Board of Education’s April 5 meeting.

The data was from the district’s relatively new i-Ready assessment, approved by the school board in September for use in the district.

“These are our winter results,” Purcaro said at the start of the presentation, adding that he shared fall data in October with the school board.

Part of the presentation compared fall data to the winter data. Purcaro also spoke about next steps.

“i-Ready is a computer-based adaptive assessment that we administer to all students in grades two through eight. We administer that assessment three times a year, in both [English language arts (ELA)] and math,” Purcaro said. “The assessment itself gives us detailed reports. Those reports include overall results, but more specifically results for four domains in math and six domains in ELA.”

Purcaro said the information can be used by teachers to inform instruction, and it is not mandated by the state.

Results Shared

Results from the test were shared at mid or above grade level, early grade level performance, one grade level below performance, two grade levels below performance, and three or more grade levels below performance.

As of the winter assessments for reading, Purcaro reported 45% of students are performing at mid or above grade level, 22% were at early grade level performance, 23% were one grade level below, and about 10% were two or more grade levels below performance.

“That’s right where they should be, this is mid-year,” said Purcaro, adding that there is work to be done.

Since the fall assessment there has been progress for students at or above grade level, Purcaro shared, by an over 10% increase.

“We are doing exceedingly well in our early reading categories,” said Purcaro.

When sharing reading placement by grade levels, Purcaro pointed out that teachers have specific data for each of their students.

“They can get much more specific information on their kids so they can act on that information,” Purcaro said.

For the math winter assessments, Purcaro’s slide shared that 35% of students are performing at mid or above grade level, 28% were at early grade level performance, 29% were one grade level below, and about 8% were two or more grade levels below performance. This also showed progress since the fall assessments, which had 15% of students at mid or above grade level.

Winter Data Reviewed

Purcaro said the winter data was reviewed with each of the building-based teams; there are regular meetings to determine support, and all teachers in the district have had time to look over the data.

Types of intervention and support include providing elementary school students with a before school program and more small group instruction in reading and math along with other options at all grade levels.

i-Ready also provides recommendations for each student; grouping recommendations for each classroom based on skill areas; online personalized pathways for each student; teacher tools that include multiple lesson plans for specific skills; and a digital instruction book for additional practice, according to the presentation.

Near the end of the presentation, Purcaro noted that vocabulary and comprehension are the reading domains in greatest need of improvement, geometry is the math domain in greatest need of improvement, and in both reading and math all grades have shown significant growth since the fall assessment.

Follow-up meetings will be held with school district leadership to monitor progress with action plans, Purcaro said while summing up his report.

Education Editor Eliza Hallabeck can be reached at eliza@thebee.com.