Wausau district reports early-grade gains, outlines steps to support classroom management and assessments

Sandy, the district’s elementary literacy coordinator, told the Wausau School District board that more students are "exiting" from intervention this year, rising to roughly 29–40% in some buildings compared with 1–15% in the first year of Act 20 implementation. The update, delivered during the board’s twice-yearly AGR review, also described changes to screening tools and next steps for aligning instruction and assessments.

The AGR program funds smaller class sizes and targeted supports in K–3; presenters said the district maintains AGR classrooms at roughly 18:1 in targeted grades and asks each school to set performance objectives aligned to continuous improvement plans. "We are starting to see all of our hard work pay off for our students," Sandy said, referencing the higher exit rates and broader improvements in literacy and math screeners.

District staff described a deliberate move to interview-based screeners in kindergarten and first grade. Presenters said the Forefront number-sense screener (one-on-one, teacher-administered) replaced a computer-adaptive kindergarten diagnostic after leaders concluded the diagnostic produced less-valid results for very young students. "There’s a huge difference when you’re working with littles around a one-on-one teacher-guided assessment versus clicking on an iPad," a district presenter said, noting the approach requires more training and staffing but yields clearer information for instruction.

Principals from the three AGR elementary schools — Franklin, JD Jones and Thomas Jefferson — described school-level plans. Jen Davidson, principal at JD Jones, said next-year priorities include setting consistent routines, increasing family engagement to improve attendance, and embedding district math and literacy coordinators for more targeted coaching. Phil Beckham, JD Jones associate principal, described piloting reflective PLC inquiry that asks teams, "What do we notice? What do we wonder? What are we going to try next?" and said the model will scale across grade levels.

Board members asked whether the district provides classroom-management training after a member relayed a staff anecdote about a newer teacher who felt "handcuffed" and then observed a tenured colleague step in and restore order. Presenters pointed to existing behavior-response protocols, pupil-services support and planned professional development. "We will be doing continued professional development and support around all of those things," a district leader said, adding that classroom environment and management are explicit improvement clusters for next year.

District leaders also signaled work to develop common assessments and better integrate daily performance tasks with screening data so teachers can more consistently monitor learning. No board action was required; the presentation was informational and will feed into the district’s continuous-improvement plans.