I was looking at the results earlier today and just thought they looked fantastic. Kudos to your staff.”

Becky Peterson

The Stanley-Boyd Area Schools Board of Education held a special meeting Monday, June 15 in the high school library, voting to approve the purchase of a lot for construction of a new building for Open Doors Academy..
The move follows a board closed session last month on possible land purchase and subsequent city approval of a certified survey map for 517 North Broadway (the site of Open Doors Academy), dividing the property into two lots.
Lot 1 includes the present Open Doors Academy in a rented building, while lot 2 will furnish the site for the new building. The board voted to offer $25,000 along all closing costs and will also pay for demolition of the green shed on site, while the new building once complete will eliminate building rent. The current lease will continue while the new building is being prepared. Open Doors Academy provides an opportunity for students who might not otherwise graduate the chance to do so. The deal still awaits closing.
Also considered at the special meeting June 15 meanwhile was a discussion on whether to pursue a charter school or pathway status for the district, with the decision to pursue the pathway option.
Returning to meet Monday, June 22, the board heard the biannual Achievement Gap Reduction (AGR) report from Elementary Principal Dean Lew. The AGR Report is mandated by Wisconsin statute 118.44(4) and seeks to reduce potential gaps in early learning, measuring reading and math in a through a variety of assessments from kindergarten through third grade.
Lew reported that former Thorp Superintendent Angie Hanlin had been brought in to help.
“This year we also brought Angie Hanlin in to help on instruction,” he said.
A summary review of each grade level follows:

Kindergarten
Kindergarten results on the AGR Report showed strong improvement across both reading and math from baseline to spring. In reading, 95 percent of students scored 18 or higher on LETRS spelling by spring, up from 9 percent at baseline. On aimswebPlus, 89 percent scored at or above benchmark in initial sounds, compared with 43 percent at the start of the year, while auditory vocabulary rose from 48 percent to 78 percent. Letter naming fluency increased from three percent to 89 percent, letter sound fluency from zero percent to 88 percent, and Wonders phonics assessment scores climbed from one percent to 92 percent. Fall results had already shown notable gains, with 77 percent of students meeting the LETRS spelling benchmark and 83 percent meeting the initial sounds benchmark, but spring data showed further growth across every reading measure.
Math results also improved substantially over the year. In counting cardinality, the share of kindergarteners scoring proficient or above rose from 27 percent at the start of the school year to 88 percent in the fall and 97 percent by spring. Operations and algebraic thinking, which was not assessed at the start of the year, reached 61 percent proficient or above in the fall and improved to 80 percent by spring. Numbers and operations in base 10 also was not assessed at the start of the year, but 59 percent of students were proficient or above in the fall, rising to 94 percent by spring. The district attributed the gains to a combination of class size reduction and instructional coaching, supported by frequent assessment, targeted intervention, and teacher collaboration.

First grade
Progressing to first grade, reading results showed broad growth from the start of the year to spring, with the strongest gains in oral reading fluency and several foundational literacy measures. LETRS spelling rose from one percent of students scoring six or higher at baseline to 53 percent by spring. On aimswebPlus, the share of students meeting oral reading fluency improved from 38 percent in the fall to 78 percent in the spring. Other reading indicators also climbed steadily over the year, with the number of students scoring 25 or higher in auditory vocabulary increasing from 49 percent to 62 percent, and word reading fluency improved from seven percent to 53 percent. Wonders phonics assessment scores meanwhile rose from zero percent at baseline to 64 percent in spring, and nonsense word fluency increased from eight percent to 86 percent. The district’s growth goal was for 90 percent of first graders to reach benchmark in phoneme segmentation, auditory vocabulary, letter word sounds fluency and oral reading fluency, with at least 14 students meeting phonemic awareness and 10 meeting the Wonders phonics benchmark.
In math, first graders also posted notable gains across all reported areas by spring. At baseline, no students had met benchmark in operations and algebraic thinking or numbers and operations in base 10, while by spring some 81 percent of students had met benchmark in operations and algebraic thinking and 72 percent in numbers and operations in base 10. On aimswebPlus concepts and applications, the percentage of students scoring 20 or higher rose from 14 percent at baseline to 73 percent in spring. Additional spring fluency measures also showed improvement, with 54 percent of students scoring 30 or higher on number comparison fluency, up from 11 percent at the start of the year, while 75 percent scored 16 or higher on math fact fluency, compared with just four percent at the start of the year.

Second grade
Moving from first to second grade, reading results showed substantial gains from baseline to spring across nearly every literacy measure. Oral reading fluency improved from 12 percent of students scoring 97 or higher at baseline to 48 percent in the spring, with 11 students scoring from 90 to 96.. As for reading comprehension, assessments show the number of students scoring 162 or higher rose from 28 percent in the fall to 77 percent in the spring. Vocabulary scores on the aimswebPlus assessment increased from 33 percent of students scoring 167 or higher to 85 percent doing so by spring. LETRS basic spelling list performance meanwhile climbed from two percent scoring 8 or higher to 55 percent doing so. Those students scoring 14 or higher on the Wonders phonics assessment improved from three percent to 72 percent over the school year. Fall data again showed that many of these gains were already underway by midyear, with 22 percent of students meeting the oral reading fluency benchmark, 58 percent meeting the reading comprehension benchmark, and 43 percent meeting the vocabulary benchmark, before rising further in the spring.
In math, second graders also posted strong growth from the beginning of the year to spring. Operations and algebraic thinking increased from 36 percent of students meeting benchmark at baseline to 98 percent doing so by spring, while those meeting benchmark in numbers and operations in base 10 rose from 10 percent to 93 percent. Measurement and data, which had no students meeting benchmark in the fall, had reached 75 percent of students by spring. On aimswebPlus, concepts and applications improved from 12 percent of students scoring 167 or higher at baseline to 70 percent going so in spring, number comparison rose from 21 percent scoring 9 or higher to 80 percent, with computation fluency among students increasing from 31 percent that scored 14 or higher at the start of the school year to 78 percent doing so by spring.

Third grade
Progressing to third grade, reading results showed solid growth from baseline to spring across nearly every literacy measure. Oral reading fluency improved from 26 percent of students scoring 110 or higher at the beginning of the school year to 55 percent doing so by spring, with six students scoring between 101 and 109 on the assessment. Reading comprehensionscores meanwhile rose from 40 percent of students scoring 176 or higher at the start of the year to 66 percent doing so at the end of the year. Vocabulary performance on aimswebPlus increased from 54 percent of students scoring 178 or higher to 72 percent by spring. LETRS advanced spelling list results climbed from 15 percent at baseline to 48 percent in the spring, and Wonders phonics scores rose from 41 percent to 79 percent.
In math, third graders posted some of the most dramatic gains of any grade level, particularly on end-of-year district standards. At baseline, no students had met benchmark in operations and algebraic thinking, numbers and operations with fractions, or measurement and data. By spring, 75 percent of students met benchmark in operations and algebraic thinking, 79 percent in numbers and operations with fractions and 63 percent in measurement and data. On aimswebPlus, concepts and applications increased from 12 percent of students scoring 181 or higher at baseline to 85 percent by spring, while number comparison rose from 51 percent scoring 18 or higher to 75 percent and computation fluency improved from 43 percent scoring 14 or higher to 74 percent.

School board members had praise for Lew and his staff.
“I was looking at the results earlier today and just thought they looked fantastic,” school board member Becky Peterson said. “Kudos to your staff.”
Stanley-Boyd Schools regular school board meetings are held on the fourth Monday of each month in the high school library. The public is invited and welcome to attend.