CCSD sees improvement in FAST scores

Formative assessment system for teachers (FAST) scores are trending upward for Creston Community Elementary School students.

Callie Anderson, principal for junior kindergarten and kindergarten, and Scott Driskell, first- through fifth-grade principal, presented FAST scores to the Creston Community School District Board of Directors during the board’s regular meeting Monday.

The FAST screenings test a student’s reading proficiency. The tests are given three times each year, during the fall, winter and spring, with each test during the year testing progressively tougher skills.

“The difficulty of things change from fall to winter to spring?” asked Board Member Sharon Snodgrass. “So when you only go up 1 percent, it really is lots more than that?”

“Right, because it’s changing those foundational skills,” Anderson said. “We’re excited to see that trend line continue to go up.”

In the fall of 2015, only 49 percent of Creston Community School District’s junior kindergartners through fifth-graders were proficient. That number increased dramatically to 57 percent in the winter of 2015.

From there, the number took a slight dip to 56 percent in the spring of 2016 before growing again to 57 percent in fall of 2016. Since then, the percentage of proficient students has continued to climb to 61 percent in the winter of 2017 and 63 percent in the spring of 2017.

Students are currently being screened for the fall of 2017 period, and Anderson hopes to have those results back within a couple of months.

“I set a trend line on there (graph) to show we are making upward progress, which is encouraging,” Anderson said. “This is three times a year and it’s electronically scored by the teachers so we can receive immediate data once the students have been screened.”

Driskell noted how the original FAST program was abandoned by the state after some issues arose with how teachers reported the scores.

“When they rolled out the FAST piece, they were having a lot of technical issues with it and the state pulled back,” Driskell said. “That was part of our professional development this afternoon, getting our teachers acclimated with their (new) piece. The way they give the screener is not any different than it was before, but the good news is the reporting pieces are better. I think, in the end, it will be a positive move.”

New members

The CCSD Board of Directors also swore in its newly elected members, while also electing a new president and vice president during Monday’s organizational meeting.

Outgoing Board Member Tom Eagan was thanked by CCSD administrators and his fellow board members before handing his seat over to newly elected Board Member Terry Freeman.

“I have learned a lot of valuable lessons, I can tell you that,” Eagan said.

Eagan decided not to run for re-election when his term ended. With Snodgrass and Galen Zumbach each running for re-election, and no challengers running for election, that left one vacant seat on the board.

Snodgrass and Zumbach were each re-elected, and Freeman’s write-in campaign in the days leading up to last week’s school election proved to be enough for him to secure the final spot.

Freeman, Snodgrass and Zumbach were all sworn in during Monday’s meeting. Board Member Don Gee was elected by his fellow board members as president, while Dr. Brad James was elected as vice president.