The Carroll Community School District’s (CCSD) Board of Education recently reviewed data from the spring testing assessments required by the state and is concerned about the drop in the fifth-grade results. The district partakes in four different assessments: Formative Assessment System for Teachers (FAST) Reading and Math, Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) in the areas of English Language Arts (ELA), Math and Science, and the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) for ELA, Math and Science. Board Member Jill Johnston asked Adam’s Elementary School Curriculum Coordinator, Linsey Pick if she knew the cause of the decrease in the fifth-grade FAST reading scores. Pick says that the testing moves to focus on different aspects of reading.
Board members questioned if moving from fluency to focusing more on comprehension would help increase those scores. Amy Collison, Adams Elementary Principal, says fluency is a huge part of reading, especially in elementary grades.
Results in the NWEA MAP growth for fifth-grade students showed that only 36% of students were proficient in the fall of 2023, which decreased to 27% in the spring of 2024. In ISASP, fifth graders for ELA decreased from 69% proficient in 21-22 to 53% this year, with science scores of the same years dropping from 60% to 46% proficient. Board member Johnston asked if the transition into the new building was from Adams Elementary to Carroll Middle School. She also questioned whether the pandemic from 2020 was an indicator of results.
While no data supports either the transition into the new building or the COVID-19 pandemic taking away from the second half of their first-grade year as the cause, the CCSD administration and staff, in a collaborative effort, are looking at all possible scenarios. The district, together with the Board of Education, says it is committed to serving each student with the best education experience possible and is determined to discover the reason behind the results and find a solution.
