South Redford board hears Jefferson Elementary progress, district growth data

Jefferson Elementary Principal Paige and several teachers told the South Redford School District Board of Education on Feb. 23 that focused small-group instruction and newly adopted curricular supports are producing measurable progress among students.

At the start of the presentation, Principal Paige said the school’s priorities this year centered on curriculum and assessment, safety and learning environment, and relationships and responsiveness. She described a push to strengthen Tier 1 instruction and to use targeted "WIN" (What I Need) groups to address students’ skill gaps.

Jefferson staff walked the board through local measures the school uses to track progress. A teacher reported kindergarten Acadience benchmark rates of 41% at or above benchmark and large short-term gains in several early grades; one staff presenter said first-grade scores moved from 23% to 50% at or above benchmark, and another cited gains of 62% and 73% in other grades on school reading checks. The presenters linked those gains to curricular additions such as UFLY and a phonics-for-reading program now in use in upper elementary classrooms.

Students joined the presentation to describe hands-on WIN activities and said the small groups help them identify strengths and areas to improve. Principal Paige said Jefferson also uses coaching cycles and progress monitoring to refine small-group instruction.

District data coordinator Nadia presented districtwide student-growth percentiles, explaining that growth percentiles compare a student’s change to peers with similar prior scores. Nadia said roughly 26% of students show above-average growth in ELA, about 45% show average growth and about 30% show below-average growth; she reported similar distributions for math and noted the district’s growth figures exceed county and state averages in the presentation slides.

Nadia also reviewed I-Ready winter-tier changes, reporting that the district’s at-risk ELA group declined from 47% in the fall to 36% in winter and that math at-risk declined from 48% to 37%; she described those shifts as movement from red tiers into yellow and green tiers on the district’s progress-monitoring framework.

Board members thanked presenters and asked for periodic updates. The presentation closed with board members praising student engagement and teacher work.