D21 scores improve

Granted, that is apples to oranges since it is different students each year, she said.

So she tracked the same students — called a cohort — to see what gains had been made from the previous year. That was also good news.

With just one exception, every single grade at each of the three elementaries in The Dalles saw more than a year’s worth of gains in both reading and math, in just a year’s time.

In fact, most grades had improved nearly two years, or even more, in the space of that one year.

“When I’m seeing kids making more than a year’s worth of growth, I’m pretty happy about that,” she said.

Two of the three schools, Chenowith and Col. Wright, have both been underperforming according to state benchmarks, but both are “making huge gains,” Grotting said.

“I’m excited about it,” she said. “I feel this district is headed in a really positive direction. I keep telling people, we’re getting ready to round a bend.”

A couple of higher grades at one school are still slightly behind their grade level, but they are still making up ground compared to where the grade tested the year before, Grotting said.

Grotting credits the districtwide adoption of a new reading curriculum, Wonders, the previous school year.

Improved reading brings improvement across all subjects, including math, she said.

The schools all test second through fifth grade students on reading and math three times a year: In fall, winter and spring. Each serves as a benchmark for progress within the school year, and year to year.

Both Col. Wright and Dry Hollow saw some cohorts gain two years of growth in just one year. Chenowith saw nearly two-year improvements in several grades in both reading and math.

The tests also show what percentage of each grade falls into low-risk, some-risk and high-risk categories.

The risk measure is of not being at grade level for reading.

In almost every grade, K-5, at every school, with two exceptions at Chenowith, the high-risk group shrank and the low-risk group grew.

Chenowith has the most challenging demographics in the district, with the most kids in poverty, the most English learners, and significantly lower kindergarten preparedness.

The schools are also about to start a program of closely monitoring the most academically at-risk students, touching base every six weeks to test progress in the specific area they’re struggling in.

Progress is tested with quick one- to three-minute checks of their abilities, Grotting said.

Now, teachers at each grade level meet three times a year with their reading specialists to have what are called “100 percent meetings.”

These meetings “are looking at the health of the core instruction” to see what its strengths and weaknesses, and what areas need to be shored up, she said.

It considers the needs of 100 percent of the students in the school.

New to this will be so-called “20 percent meetings,” done every six weeks and focusing on the lowest 20 percent of the kids in each classroom. These kids will be matched with interventions to address the skills they need, Grotting said.

“We’re trying to be more focused in our look at what’s working and what’s not,” she said.

The first foray of the 20 percent meetings will start soon, but full implementation is planned next school year, Grotting said.

The adoption of the reading curriculum was the first since the district’s formation 12 years ago when the old Districts 12 and 9 merged.

Before the implementation of the Wonders curriculum, it used to be an “educational lottery,” Grotting said, with the level of education differing not only by building, but by classroom.