This Spring, teachers started a series of individual reading assessments.  Student reading skills and progress will be monitored by completing assessments in Spring 2025, Fall 2025, and once again in Spring 2026.  

Reading assessments, using the proficiency scale, focus on four areas of growth: Comprehension/Summarizing, Decoding/Fluency, Inferring, and Making Connections.  Our Spring 2025 reading assessment results is seen in the featured image (includes all students).  Most of our students find themselves in the developing-to-proficient areas of assessment.  These individual assessments provide teachers with a ‘snapshot’ of learning, as well as a baseline: a starting point of where each student finds themselves, at this time, in building reading skills.

Back in Spring 2024, students were asked to complete a survey.  The feedback provided informed staff that students were wrestling with Literacy skills.  Teachers recognized the need for growth in this area.  As a staff, we decided to shift our School Learning Story to developing a Growth Mindset (versus having a ‘fixed mindset’) with a focus on increasing confidence in Literacy skill-building.  ‘Student voice’ from the survey indicated specifically that many did not feel confident in their written output and did not enjoy the process of writing. 

Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, teachers collaborated in grade groups to discuss ideas that would help to build a love for writing (Inquiry question: How does having a growth mindset support students in finding joy in writing?).  Moreover, knowing that reading is connected to writing, staff decided to assess and monitor growth in developing reading skills (in the four areas listed above).  The goal is to mark growth in written output as reading skills improve.  By making deeper connections when reading (text to text, text to self, text to world) the goal is to broaden perspectives that create more ideas.  By increasing their levels in the four areas assessed, that goal is for students to build confidence in what they might choose to write about. With increased confidence, the hope is that student written output will increase (details, details, details!) and that they will enjoy the process of writing more fully. 

We look forward to providing updates as we continue to track progress throughout the 2025-2026 school year!