The Springfield Board of Education received a report on academic progress in the 2025-26 school year. The report highlighted improvements in attendance and testing, with a focus on the district’s behavior management system and teacher development.
Attendance Continues to Improve
Superintendent Grenita Lathan had previously promised to take a Powerade shower if the district met its attendance goal, which it did in 2024. The district tracks two key attendance figures: average daily attendance and proportional attendance. Both figures are up across the district, with all five high schools reporting increases in both average and proportional attendance rates.
The average daily attendance rates for the previous school year are 93.46% for elementary schools, 92.6% for middle and K-8 schools, and 91.22% for high schools. Deputy Superintendent Nicole Holt said, “Huge celebrations there, when we think about continuing to increase the time our students are attending, which we know results in heightened student achievements.”
Teacher Development and Behavior Management
The district’s classroom management and behavior system, based on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Strategies (PBIS), has seen an increase in implementation. According to an independent review, 43 of the district’s 50 schools scored an implementation rate of 80% or higher at the tier one level.
Additionally, the district has been working on teacher development through training and professional development. Executive directors visited 3,379 classrooms, spending 2,308 hours on campuses and 569 in observation and feedback. Holt said, “You can see that we are really protecting and prioritizing the directors’ time on campus, which we believe is a direct correlation to what we’re seeing with student achievement.”
Universal Screener Forecasts Successful State Review
The district’s universal screening system, Renaissance, showed that students did well learning state standards in two key areas: English language arts and math. The system forecasts another successful state review, with 51% of students estimated to have scored at or above state benchmarks for English language arts testing and 41% for math.
Original reporting: Springfield Daily Citizen — read the source article.
