District staff presented interim Measure 3.1 — an early checkpoint tracking growth for emerging multilingual students — and told trustees the district is not yet on track to meet its multi-year AzELLA proficiency targets.

"Goal 3 is to increase our English proficiency for emerging multilinguals, from 25 percent from August 2023 to 40 percent by August 2028 on our AzELLA assessment," a presenter said. The assessment team reported that for the 2025–26 school year, 15% of multilingual students in grades 3–8 increased one or more proficiency levels from pretest to interim benchmark 1. "Based on the data that we have today, in this report, we are not on track to meet interim measure 3.1," the assessment presenter said.

Staff described several actions to accelerate growth: recalculating prior-year data with consistent correlation coefficients for year-over-year comparison; piloting an AzELLA 'mimic' tool to analyze item-level responses; and expanding targeted professional development. Presenters said 28 targeted SEI teachers are participating in district professional learning cohorts (three of the four sessions complete), 17 additional teachers have joined cohorts this year, and 48 teachers receive direct coaching from language-acquisition coaches. Family engagement nights have been used to walk caregivers through scores and test items; roughly 77 families attended the most recent session.

After questions about cohort spread, coaching coverage, and data wording (staff agreed to post corrected language for the October attendance comparison), the board moved, seconded, and approved progress monitoring report 2 for Guardrail 1.

Staff said additional interim data (FastBridge) will be available after the assessment window closes and that the team will continue monitoring and posting corrected materials online.