Elementary scores show progress at Stanley-Boyd

by Joseph Back

In a world where test scores mean both student readiness and can also mean renewed teacher contracts, Stanley-Boyd had a head start, Elementary Principal Dean Lew told the school board June 28 at a presentation on the district’s Achievement Gap Reduction (AGR) test scores, which are taken by the lower-grade levels.

“Five percent of our kids were proficient with the skills at the beginning of the year,” Lew told the Stanley-Boyd School Board of the most recent AGR test results for kindergartners on what they needed to master for first grade. “So that’s kindergarten skills we’re looking at,” Lew said.

“We look all the way over here, 67 percent of kids were proficient,” he pointed to the end of the year results, with eight students one mark away from proficiency.

“That takes us up to 87 percent,” he said of Stanley-Boyd skills as he updated the board on test results.

“In addition to that, our kindergarten teachers made it more rigorous this year. Instead of having just 16 out of 20 correct, they wanted students to have all 20 out of 20 correct. So we did make some nice progress this year,” Lew filled in the board of the elementary and its kindergarten teachers. “I was very proud.” So what are the skills needed by a kindergartner for reading to succeed at first grade?

Things like recognizing sounds and correctly copying dictated sentences. With concrete skills preceding formal logic in human development, getting the base right, is important.

Especially when its legislated in chapter 118 of the state statutes, which lays out the partnership rules for the AGR program between the State Department of Public Instruction and local participating school districts. So what are the rest of the grade scores at Stanley-Boyd? They re listed under 2.1 AGR Review in the online board agenda for the June 28 meeting. Graded on reading and math, these are the results.

Beginning with kindergarten, 67 percent of students scored 20 or higher on PALS, while 93 percent (50/54) scored 90 or higher on letters/ sounds ESGI. 70 percent (38/54) scored 21 or higher on dictated sentences for spring semester progress.

In math, 91 percent of kindergarters (49/54) scored three or four on being able to count cardinal numbers, while 78 percent (42/54) scored 3 or 4 on operations and algebraic thinking. For “numbers and operations base 10”, 70 percent of kindergartners (38/54) scored 3 or 4.

Moving up a grade level for reading to first grade, the PALS score came out with 34 percent (25/73) scoring 40 or higher on PALS, while 71 percent scored 80 or higher on ESGI, with 74 percent (54/73) of first graders scoring 34 or higher on dictated sentences, indicating steady progression. “Yes, we do have some work that needs to be done yet to help all of our students learn at a high level,” Lew noted in first grade reading results. “However, we also need to celebrate what we accomplished during the COVID Pandemic.” With test results continuing

See AGR REPORT, Page 9

Principal Dean Lew appeared before the Stanley-Boyd Board of Education June 28 to give the AGR update.

FROM PAGE 1 into third grade according to various tests and benchmarks, one thing is for certain: being a kid, isn’t quite what it used to be—or is it?

Full AGR test results are available at https://board.stanleyboyd. k12.wi.us/images/pdf/2021/June/2.1_AGR_Report_ 2021.pdf.