The District AGR report is in, being given at the February school board meeting.

An acronym standing for ‘Achievement Gap Reduction,’ the AGR is given twice a year by elementary principal Dean Lew for kindergarten through 3rd grade. With AGR tied to Wisconsin state statute 118.44(4), scores at the start of the year provide a baseline performance level to measure against, with educators then setting goals and basing instruction on what the tests show. AGR strategies for improvement include class size reduction and instructional coaching. Here's what the numbers are for the start of the year versus now.

Starting with kindergarten, the start of the year saw zero percent of kindergartners score 19 or higher on the PALS assessment, a number increased to 66 percent or 44 of 67 kindergartners at present. For letters and sounds, some three percent or 2 of 68 students scored 90 or higher on the ESGI at the start of the year, while the most recent test shows that 90 percent or 60 of 67 students now score 90 or higher on letters and sounds in the ESGI.

As for phonemic awareness, some seven percent of students scored 90 percent or higher on phonemic awareness at the start of the year, now raised to 66 percent or 44 of 67 students on the most recent assessment.

Closing out kindergarten reading numbers, results show that some 39 percent or 26 of 67 kindergartners now score a 3 or higher on Wonders Phonics Assess.

Shifting from reading to math, the AGR report shows that just one student scored a 3 or 4 on counting cardinality at the start of the year, while that number has since risen to 66 percent or 45 of 68 students. In Operations and Algebraic Thinking, current results show 45 percent or 30 of 66 students scored a 3 or 4 in the category at present, no assessment being made at the beginning of the year. In like fashion, current results show 48 percent or 32 of 66 students score a 3 or 4 on Numbers or Operations Base 10, with no assessment being made at the beginning of the year.

Moving from kindergarten to first grade, reading scores showed 15 percent or 12 of 81 students score a 40 or higher on PALS at the start of the year, with the most recent results showing this to have increased to 75 percent or 61 of 81 first graders scoring a 40 or higher on the PALS assessment.

In ESGI results, some 36 percent or 29 of 81 students scored an 80 or higher on this assessment at the start of the year, whereas just under 98 percent or 79 of 81 students (97.5 percent) scored 80 or higher on the most recent ESGI.

Shifting to dictated sentences, one of 81 first graders scored a 34 or higher at the beginning of the year, the number increased to 47 percent or 38 of 81 students scored 34 or higher on the same when most recently assessed. Closing out first grade reading scores, 3 of 81 first graders scored 10 or higher on Wonder Phonics at the start of the year, a number since increased to 31 percent, or 25 of 81 first graders.

In terms of math, the baseline showed zero percent of first graders scoring a 3 or 4 in Operations and Algebraic Thinking at the start of the year, whereas the most recent assessment shows 36 percent or 28 of 77 first graders meeting the benchmark for end of year assessment.

In Numbers and Operations Base 10, some three percent or 2 of 80 first graders met end of year benchmark in the fall, the number since increased to 36 percent or 28 of 77 students meeting this end of year standard.

In Measurement and Data, three percent of students met benchmark for the end of year assessment last fall, the numbers since rising to 44 percent or 34 of 77 first graders making the benchmark for first grade end of year assessment.

Moving into second grade, results for reading show 44 percent or 27 of 62 second graders scored a 90 or higher on Wonders Sight Words at the start of the year, a number since increased to 60 percent or 37 of 62 students scoring 90 or higher.

For Wonders Phonics, some 10 percent or 6 of 62 second graders scored a 14 or higher on Wonders Phonics at the start of the year, while 29 percent or 18 of 62 now score a 14 or higher on the same.

As to fluency check, a full 10 percent scored 100  or higher at the start of the year, while that percentage has since risen to 27 percent, or 17 of 62 students.

Closing out reading for second grade, 18 percent of students scored a 59 or higher on spelling inventory at the start of the year, while that number has since risen to 45 percent, or 28 of 62 second graders scoring a 59 or higher on spelling inventory.

For math, the AGR Report shows that 24 percent or 15 of 62 students met end of year benchmark for Operations and Algebraic Thinking  at the start of the year, while that number now stands at 69 percent or 43 of 62 second graders. For Numbers and Operations Base 10, some 15 percent of second graders or 9 of 62 students met end of year benchmark in fall, a number now at 55 percent or 34 of 62 students. For Measurement and Data, zero percent of students met the benchmark for end of the year assessment at the start of the year, while 15 percent of students or 9 of 62 now meet the same.

As for third grade reading, Exact path assessment scores showed 14 percent of third graders scored a 985 or above on Language Arts (LA) at the start of the year, a figure now standing at 46 percent, or 356 of 77 students. For reading in third grade, a full 26 percent of third graders scored 1038 or above at the start of the year, while that number now stands at 51 percent, or 39 of 77 students.

As for Words Their Way , some 19 percent or 15 of 77 third grades scored an 8 or above at the start of the year, since increased to 36 percent or 28 of 77 students scoring an 8 or above. The fourth and final score for Wonders Phonics, shows an increase from 10 percent or 8 of 77 students scoring 16 or above at the start of the year, with 22 percent or 17 of 77 scoring 16 or above at present.

As for Math, the AGR Report shows just 4 percent of third graders scored a 964 or above on the Exact Path Assessment at the start of the year, with that number since increasing to 39 percent or 30 of 77 third graders.

For Operations and Algebraic Thinking, zero percent of the third graders met the end of year benchmark at the beginning of the year, while the most recent test results show that 21 percent of third graders now meet the end of year benchmark in this category. For Numbers and Operations of Fractions, zero percent of current third graders met the benchmark for end of year third grade assessment, with that number now three percent.

Closing out the report for measurements and data, zero percent of third graders met the benchmark for end of year assessment in fall, with the most recent number for measurements and data being one percent or 1 of 78 third graders.