A school board committee met April 20 to review data on academic achievement from mid-year assessments.
The committee discussed Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skill (DIBELS), a universal screening tool used to help identify students at risk for reading difficulties. The screener measures early literacy skills in students from kindergarten through third grade, including sound recognition and reading fluency.
They also looked at data from the county’s benchmark assessments in English and math for students in 3rd grade through high school.
“The goal is to move our students forward to be college-ready,” said Jonathan Briggs (District 2), committee chair and a member of the Prince George’s County Schools (PGCPS) Board of Education.
Steady gains in early literacy
According to Laurie Mazelin, a data specialist for the school district, county schools evaluated 35,912 students using DIBELS. This is the fourth year the district has used this assessment.
The percentage of K-3 students who are at or above benchmark goals for literacy has risen around 10% over the past four years, to close to 50%, according to Mazelin’s presentation.
Mazlein highlighted consecutive years of improvement across all grade levels with DIBELS, noting an increase in student performance above the benchmark from the mid-year point of last year to the mid-year point this year.
The one exception was a slight decrease in first-grade oral reading accuracy.
”It just calls for further analysis and looking at student-level data in order to take action on what that data means for the individual student,” Mazelin said.
Grades 3 and up: Improvements and challenges
Mid-year benchmark assessments, testing tools for older grades, showed a 4.7 percent improvement in English language arts across grades 3 and up compared with last year, and a 5.4 percent improvement in mathematics.
“[We’re] certainly moving in the right direction when we’re looking at mathematics,” Mazelin said.
Proficiency in mathematics at the middle school level remains the most challenging, with fewer than 5% of students on track according to benchmark assessments, despite year-over-year improvements.
Just write down something
The data also revealed that more students attempted written responses on tests this year. The number of third-graders receiving zero on writing responses in English dropped from 32% to 25%.
For written responses in the math section, the percentage of third-graders writing nothing dropped from 33% to 30% for modeling, and from 30% to 24% for reasoning.
Parent involvement
Parents receive a cover letter from the district with a scoring report, according to Simone McQuaige, a supervisor for elementary reading with county schools.
“We’ve offered a series of parent workshops and made them available to the schools so parents can log in and learn a little bit more about the assessment report and speak to that report specifically,” McQuagie said.
Staff training
Training sessions also taught teachers and principals how to digest the high-level charts and graphs and work through the data, according to Mazelin.
According to the testimonials Mazelin showed in the meeting, the reports were positive.
“These insights will drive continuous improvement by enabling us to align our budget priorities with targeted math and RELA writing data, while establishing an aggressive monitoring plan through our Network Improvement Teams to ensure instructional accountability and student growth,” a middle school and K-8 principal said.
The next academic achievement meeting will be held on May 11 at 5:30 p.m.