photo by: USD 497 screenshot

Board Vice President Paula Smith, left, and board member Erica Hill, center, ask questions about district assessment data during the board's meeting on July 25, 2022.

Some Lawrence school board members expressed concerns on Monday about the ongoing disparities between different student groups in the most recent state assessments that measure reading, math and science skills.

As part of its meeting Monday, the Lawrence school board received preliminary data regarding the district’s state assessment results, which doesn’t yet include math scores for 10th graders. The assessment measures proficiency in reading, math and science, and board members expressed concern and posed questions about disparities among students of color as well as some overall drops in performance compared to past years.

Jana Craig-Hare, director of data and assessment, said she looked at gaps between different demographics of student groups over time, which includes how students of color score in comparison to white students. She said that while there was ebb and flow to those gaps, generally the gaps between student groups had not changed.

Board member Erica Hill said that the variance between African American students and other groups has been “consistent and significant,” and that she’d like to get a better understanding of what the district is actively doing to close that gap. Board Vice President Paula Smith agreed, saying that the district has continued to have the same conversation year after year regarding achievement gaps for students of color, and she’d like to see something concrete to show the district is making change.

“Now that we know this, are we really doing better and doing something different about it?” Smith asked.

The assessment breaks down scores into four levels, with students who score in levels three and four considered proficient. Overall, only 14% of Black students scored in level 3 or 4 for English language arts, 17% for math, and 8% for science. For white students, 44% scored in level 3 or 4 for English language arts, 38% for math, and 43% for science. Other students of color, specifically Native American, Hispanic and multi-racial students, also scored lower by comparison, as did low-income students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

photo by: USD 497

A Lawrence school district presentation slide shows the scores of various student subgroups in English Language Arts. Level 3 and 4 are considered proficient and Level 2 is considered at grade level.

photo by: USD 497

A Lawrence school district presentation slide shows the scores of various student subgroups in math. Level 3 and 4 are considered proficient and Level 2 is considered at grade level.

photo by: USD 497

A Lawrence school district presentation slide shows the scores of various student subgroups in science. Level 3 and 4 are considered proficient and Level 2 is considered at grade level.

Cynthia Johnson, executive director of inclusion, engagement and belonging, provided the board some information about ongoing district equity work. She said that included school equity teams, including a student-level group formed last year, and the district’s partnership with Equal Opportunity Schools, which focuses on strengthening relationships with students. She said those conversations are happening, and there would be concrete actions to follow.

“We’ve got to put actions with those conversations; that’s very important,” Johnson said.

As a whole, the district still generally performed better than other districts in Kansas. Across all grade levels, a greater percentage of Lawrence students scored proficient in English language arts and science compared to the state as a whole. All grade levels except sixth grade had higher math proficiency. However, the district has seen drops in proficiency compared to recent years.

The district has identified third grade reading proficiency and eighth grade math proficiency as key indicators, and results show that at those levels reading proficiency has declined over the past year while math has remained roughly the same. Specifically, third grade reading proficiency declined from 49.6% in the 2020-2021 school year to 43.8% in the 2021-2022 school year. Eighth-grade math proficiency was 20.8% in 2020-2021 and 20.7% in 2021-2022, but that represents a drop from 30.2% in the 2018-2019 school year. There were no assessments for the 2019-2020 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

photo by: USD 497

A Lawrence school district presentation slide shows the percentage of students scoring in each level district wide for English Language Arts, math and science. Level 3 and 4 are considered proficient and Level 2 is considered at grade level.

photo by: USD 497

A Lawrence school district presentation slide shows the percent of third graders proficient in reading and eighth graders proficient in math over the past several years.

School board member Kay Emerson said it would also be helpful to have a list of the district’s intervention programs and other efforts to get more students to level 3.

Superintendent Anthony Lewis said the district was not where it wanted to be with that data, though he noted state data was also seeing a downward trend. Lewis said students come to school with different “variables” that affect their learning, and amid the pandemic, those challenges were exacerbated. He said he hoped the district’s upcoming rollout of a new social-emotional curriculum would help.

“So it’s our job to control for those variables, and in the pandemic those variables were expanded,” Lewis said. “And so when we look at the ELA scores and the math scores and the science scores, we can’t just fix that in ELA class, the math class, the science class. There are some wrap-around supports that our students and our families need.”

Johnson added that the preliminary assessment data and the board conversation would be the first thing she sends out to the Equity Advisory Council and the Parents of Color Advisory Team.

“This will be our jumping off point for the work that we need to do,” Johnson said.

Discussion also touched on the meaning of the four levels and some potential for misunderstanding. Craig-Hare said that level 3 or 4 — 3 being effective and 4 being excellent — was considered proficient and represented “post secondary readiness.” However, she said students who score in level 2 are still on grade level, and are considered to have a basic ability to understand skills for post secondary success. Board President Shannon Kimball said it was important to clarify that level 2 was still on grade level and considered passing.

The presentation of the district’s assessment results is available as part of the board’s agenda materials, which are available on the district website, USD497.org.