While much of Tuesday’s Board of Education (BOE) meeting focused on the Medical Self-Insurance Fund strategic plan, the board also listened to a presentation on the district’s 2024-25 Next Generation Accountability (NGA) report.

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Frank Purcaro presented the report, which he said serves as a “more holistic way to measure district performance without relying solely on state assessments results.”

The NGA report uses a set of 12 indicators that explain how well a school prepares its students for success in college, careers, and life, with a focus on academic growth and performance of student subgroups.

Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti said this is the final set of data from the previous school year and an important component of the district’s continued improvement work.

“It allows us to reflect on where we are, recognize our progress, and thoughtfully plan for where we will go next,” Uberti said. “The results are extremely encouraging and ... several data points [indicate] a clear upward trajectory for our district.”

Uberti said this progress was not an accident. She called the district’s recent year-over-year improvement “gradual and steady,” adding it is a strong indicator that the work of their leaders and staff is making a real difference.

Uberti expressed gratitude to Purcaro, central office and school administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, and everyone else “who make[s] a school be a school” and moves the district forward.

After that, Purcaro started going over the report. He said he kept the theme he and Uberti rolled out for a convocation: “Together, Igniting Potential, Inspiring Achievement.”

Purcaro said the theme is “very much in line” with the district’s philosophy around continuous improvement, which they have revisited throughout the school year.

NGA Report Overview

The 12 indicators are: academic achievement, academic growth, participation rate, chronic absenteeism, college and career readiness (courses), college and career readiness (exams), on track to high school graduation, four-year graduation rate, six-year graduation rate, post-secondary entrance, physical fitness, and participation in the arts.

Some of the indicators included subsets featuring additional information depending on the category — totaling 23 indicators including the subsets.

The NGA calculates the percentage of points earned for each indicator and its respective subsets. Purcaro further condensed the report to show the district’s performance in 2023-24 to compare it to 2024-25.

Each indicator and subset had an trending arrow, indicating if district performance went up, down, or stayed the same compared to last year.

Considering all indicators and subsets, Purcaro said Newtown Public Schools District is up or consistent in 18 of the 23 categories.

“And the ones that we’re consistent in, we stayed at a 100% of the max performance that you can possibly receive in those areas,” Purcaro explained. “So we’re not the same, but we’re staying the same at a very, very high level.”

The district earned maximum points in five categories: English/language arts (ELA) performance index — all students, preparation for college and career readiness (CCR) — percent taking courses, on-track to high school graduation, four-year graduation: all students (2024 cohort), and postsecondary entrance (graduating class 2024).

The five indicators that declined are: science performance index — high needs students (77.2% to 75.8%), progress toward English proficiency — literacy (67.2% to 52.4%), chronic absenteeism — all students (89.9% to 85.8%), chronic absenteeism — high needs students (63.6% to 55.2%), and arts access (52% to 47.4%).

Purcaro said they know where work needs to be done in each of these declining indicators, adding “it’s things that we can tackle, and it’s things that we’re talking about in our district data and school data team meetings.”

He continued, “It’s one thing to look at these numbers, but we’d like to look at who are the students behind these numbers and what we can do with them specifically to make improvement.”

Purcaro said this improvement work is actively happening. He added that they reviewed the full NGA report with their district data team. From there, each of the schools will take the report back to their own buildings and review it with their staff to continue to dig and see who are the students behind the numbers.

Newtown Public Schools’ overall performance went from 78.4% in the 2023-24 school year to 80% in the 2024-25 school year; this is above the state average of 71.8%.

Reaching the 80s, Purcaro said, is something to celebrate.

“[Uberti] and I were very pleased to see that we were back into the 80s category. We hadn’t been there in many, many years,” Purcaro added. “Our trend is certainly heading in the right way.”

The district also reached 95% or better participation rates on all assessments for both non-high needs and high needs students.

Purcaro said the district’s ELA and math performance remained strong for all students (100% in ELA and 98.8% in math), while high needs students’ performance went up in those categories (82.1% in ELA and 80.6% in math).

He noted that ELA academic growth “jumped significantly” (56.6% to 67% for all students and 49.3% to 59.7% for high needs students). Math academic growth remained stable across the board (71.3% to 71.9% for all students and 63% to 63.7% for high needs students).

Action Steps, A Warm Farewell

Purcaro went over each of the declining categories, noting the district’s plans to address them. In the district aiming for continued growth and achievement across all categories, Purcaro said they want the five indicators that are down to be reversed and see improvements moving forward.

He continued by saying that the district is taking a much closer look at chronic absenteeism.

At the BOE’s Curriculum & Instruction Subcommittee meeting earlier Tuesday night, Purcaro said Newtown High School Dean of Students LeeAnn Browett gave a summary report where she said her primary focus is reversing chronic absenteeism across the board.

“She’s doing a multi-tiered approach to doing that ... to make sure we reverse that trend with chronic absenteeism,” Purcaro added.

He said that Reed Intermediate School, Newtown Middle School, and Newtown High School each have their own goals and action steps to address chronic absenteeism, while special education staff have their own goals and action steps to address the issue as it relates to high needs students.

Purcaro addressed the district receiving 47.4% in arts access, which is based on students who are enrolled in at least one art class in grades 9-12.

“So that’s something we’re looking at much more closely at the high school in terms of how we’re offering our classes, when we’re offering our classes, [and] what classes we’re offering,” Purcaro said.

He said he recently spoke with Newtown High School Principal Kimberly Longobucco, and that they are implementing a course the district had on the books years ago: an introduction to art that gives students a taste of painting, drawing, and ceramics.

“[This way,] if they experience some of that, they would want to go into one of those subjects a little bit deeper,” Purcaro explained.

He said they are talking about whether they can implement a similar course for high school seniors, along with potential schedule restructuring. Restructuring the schedule, Purcaro said, could give students the chance to take more electives in their upper class years if they wanted to experiment with the arts.

As for the last category with declines, English proficiency literacy, Purcaro said he could “probably do a whole other presentation” on English as a second language (ESL) alone.

He said the district assesses its ESL students in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. While students have done well on the speaking and listening portions of the assessment, Purcaro said work needs to be done on the reading and writing portion.

“And we’re working with our ESL consultants on it now,” Purcaro said.

Moving forward, Purcaro said the district will continue monitoring progress by analyzing assessment data at both the district and building levels. He also said they embedded professional learning opportunities throughout the district to increase engagement in ELS, math, and science courses in grades 6-12.

BOE Chair Alison Plante thanked executive assistant Kathy June for her many years of service to the district, as she retires on January 2. As this marked June’s last BOE meeting before her retirement, the BOE brought out red velvet cake, cannoli nachos, and gingerbread cookies with cream stuffing to celebrate.

BOE members and a few audience members stuck around and talked over desserts, making sure to give June a warm farewell.

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.