Garden City USD 457 curriculum and instruction leaders on Thursday gave the Board of Education a first look at local results from Kansas’s newly redesigned statewide student assessment, saying the data provide a baseline and showing Garden City scored below state averages in most grades and subjects.
Dr. Virginia Duncan, director of secondary instruction, and Heather Stegman, director of elementary instruction, joined Michelle Beyer, curriculum and assessment coordinator, to walk trustees through how the state reset performance-level descriptors and cut scores this year and why comparisons with prior assessments are not valid. “They changed the words on the performance level descriptors,” Duncan said, noting level 3 is now labeled “proficient.” The district received scores last month after a statewide process to set cut scores and review questions for bias.
The presenters summarized Garden City performance by grade groups. In third-grade math, 26% of students scored at levels 3–4 compared with 42% statewide. Third-grade ELA showed 43% at levels 3–4 versus 48% statewide. Similar gaps appeared across elementary, middle and high school grades: for multiple grade bands and subjects Garden City’s share of students at levels 3–4 trailed the state by roughly 10–17 percentage points in many cases, stewards said.
Speakers emphasized the limited comparability of the new test with prior years and framed the results as a baseline. “This is a brand-new test,” Stegman said. “It gives us a baseline, and we’re kind of excited to see the growth that we’ll see next year.” Presenters described processes used by the Kansas testing vendor—teacher panels taking the test, ordering items by difficulty, and multi-day discussions to set cut scores—and said that year-to-year change will be the primary measure going forward.
Board members and staff discussed drivers of the results and next steps. Administrators said shifts in curriculum and structured literacy programs over recent years (including adoption of phonics programs at early grades and a new math curriculum three years ago) are expected to influence future performance. District staff noted pockets of strong classroom-level performance — for example, a fourth-grade classroom at Jenny Wilson with nearly 78% of students scoring levels 3–4 — and said leaders will study instructional practices in higher-performing rooms to replicate successes elsewhere.
Officials also flagged English language learner concentrations as a factor: Garden City’s ESOL population is well above the state average and that demographic typically scores lower on ELA measures, they said. Presenters responded to trustee questions about how the new cut scores relate to postsecondary success, noting the state recalibrated levels to better correlate with college and workforce outcomes and to separate “high twos” from low twos.
The district will not yet publish district-to-district comparisons; staff said statewide report cards and comparative district data will be released later this school year. Administrators said they will continue analyzing the assessment and use it to inform targeted supports, curriculum adoption decisions and classroom practices.
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